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The  Evolution  of  a  Great 
Literature 


Natural  History  of  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures 


BY 

Newton  Mann 


Veritatem  dies  aperit'' 


' ' , '     ' '  > 


BOSTON 
JAMES   H.  WEST   COMPANY 


Copyright,    1905 
By  Newton  Mann 


/ 


5^^ 


2)eOfcatlon. 

TO 

REV.    T.    K.    CHEYNE,    D.  D. 

ORIEL   PROFESSOR    OF  THE    INTERPRETATION    OF  HOLY   SCRIPTURE 

AT  OXFORD,   CANON    OF  ROCHESTER,   WHOSE   RESEARCHES 

HAVE  THROWN   A    FLOOD   OF   LIGHT  ON 

OLD  TESTAMENT  PROPHECIES 

AND  TO 

W.    C.    VAN    MANEN,    D.  D, 

PROFESSOR  OF  OLD  CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  AND  NEW  TESTAMENT 

EXEGESIS,    LEYDEN,   WHOM    FUTURE   READERS   OF 

THE   BIBLE  WILL   BLESS   FOR   HAVING   SET   GOSPELS   AND 

EPISTLES    IN    INTELLIGIBLE   TIME-RELATIONS 


trw6  jsooft 


WHICH  OWES  SO    MUCH  TO  THEM 

IS   DEDICATED 

WITH    SENTIMENTS   OF   PROFOUND    REVERENCE   AND 

GRATITUDE 


427643 


The  Bible  is  not  a  book,  but  a  literature.  —  Andrew  D.  White. 

The  Bible,  with  its  many  strata  of  thought  reaching  through  a  thou- 
sand years,  shows  us  the  growth  in  the  idea  of  God,  from  a  narrow 
and  jealous  Jehovah  dividing  men,  to  a  Universal  Love  uniting 
them.  —  Henry  M.  Simmons. 

So  erweist  sich  die  Religionsentwicklung  als  der  Fortschritt  von 
der  patriarchalischen  N  a  t  u  r  durch  das  theokratische  G  e  s  e  t  z  hin- 
durch  zur  sittlichen  F  r  e  i  h  e  i  t  der  Gotteskinder,  wie  diess  schon  der 
Apostel  Paulus  [einer  so  sich  nennend]  erkannt  und  in  den  drei  Typen : 
Abraham,  Moses,  und  Christus  dargestelt  hat.  —  Pfleiderer. 

Tout  sert  a  I'intelligence  dans  sa  marche  etemelle.  Les  systemes 
sont  des  instruments  k  I'aide  desquels  I'homme  decouvre  des  verites 
de  detail,  tout  en  se  trompant  sur  I'ensemble ;  et  quand  les  systemes 
ont  passe,  les  verites  demeurent.  .  .  .  Pour  qui  croit  en  Dieu,  toute 
lumi^re  vient  de  lui,  comme  tout  ce  qu'il  y  a  en  nous  de  bon  et  de 
noble ;  et  la  revelation  est  partout  ou  il  y  a  quelque  chose  de  vrai, 
de  noble  et  de  bon.  — Benjamin  Constant,  1824. 


PREFACE. 


This  work  sets  up  no  great  claim  of  originality. 
Its  aim  is  to  present  within  small  compass  and  for 
the  use  of  the  general  reader  the  main  conclusions 
of  advanced  scholarship  touching  the  composition 
of  the  various  parts  of  the  Bible.  Already  in 
Germany  an  earnest  movement  is  on  foot  for  the 
popularization  of  the  new  views  and  of  the  knowl- 
edge on  which  they  rest,  and  it  would  seem  that 
here  in  America  we  ought  not  to  be  far  behind. 
The  unsatisfactory  situation  has  arisen  in  which  a 
branch  of  knowledge  confessedly  of  the  first  im- 
portance, with  direct  bearing  on  religionj  is  prac- 
tically restricted  to  a  few,  to  scholarly  clergymen 
and  lay  students  of  theology.  This  knowledge 
is  mostly  lodged  in  ponderous  and  costly  tomes 
and  encumbered  with  an  array  of  linguistic  and 
other  lore  calculated  to  intimidate  the  unlearned 


vi  Preface 

inquirer,  who  yet  desires  to  know  something  of 
what  has  been  found  out.  It  has  seemed  to  me 
that  there  must  be  many  hungry  souls  without 
the  time  or  the  equipment  for  extensive  researches, 
who  would  welcome  a  frank  effort  to  tell  them,  in 
outline,  the  results  of  recent  biblical  criticism  — 
results  well  enough  known  to  University  professors, 
taught  in  many  Divinity  Schools,  familiar  to  many 
preachers  whose  sermons  are  void  of  any  least  in- 
timation of  such  a  thing.  He  who  boasts  no 
Hebrew  and  no  Greek  has  yet  good  right  to  know 
what  scholars  are  thinking  about  the  ancient  text- 
book of  our  religion,  and  any  curiosity  he  may 
have  in  that  direction  ought  to  be  encouraged 
rather  than  repressed.  All  is  well  that  helps  to 
break  down  the  tendency,  already  far  advanced, 
to  separate  religious  thinkers  into  the  initiated  and 
the  uninitiated,  and  religious  thought  into  esoteric 
and  exoteric  divisions. 

To  be  useful  in  this  way  is  the  end  to  which 
this  book  addresses  itself  Accordingly,  in  its 
preparation  there  has  been  a  studied  avoidance  of 
abstrusities  and  obscurities,  and  a  greater  retrench- 
ment of  the  discussion  at  various  points  than  can 


Preface  vii 

please  the  student  already  familiar  with  the  sub- 
ject. I  am  not  here  presuming  to  instruct  the 
wise ;  I  would  be  helpful  to  those  who  sit  in  dark- 
ness and  who  are  aware  of  the  fact.  To  keep 
within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  main  purpose, 
the  treatment  is  necessarily  for  the  most  part 
sketchy,  venturing  into  some  elaboration  only  in 
dealing  with  the  more  recent  and  less  familiar  con- 
tentions ;  the  thought  being,  not  to  tell  all,  but  to 
tell  so  much-  as  may  create  a  desire  to  inquire  fur- 
ther, and  to  tell  that  much  clearly. 

Grateful  acknowledgement  is  made  of  the 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  work  shown  by  Mr. 
James  H.  West,  who,  in  its  progress,  has  offered 
many  a  happy  suggestion  and  exercised  an  exceed- 
ingly watchful  care  of  the  literary  form.  The 
faults  that  remain  may  be  attributed  to  a  per- 
versity of  my  own  in  not  heeding  all  of  his 
recommendations. 

The  scientific  path  is  the  only  one  that  leads  to 
anything  in  this  field,  and  my  effort  has  been  to 
keep  with  those  who  go  in  that  path,  and  not  be 
led  off  into  intersecting,  tortuous  sectarian  by- 
ways.    Science  so  disregardfully  traverses  all  de- 


viii  Preface 

nominational  lines  that  one  toiling  in  her  name 
never  stops  to  ask  of  what  church-connection  one's 
guide  or  helper  may  be ;  but,  now  that  my  task 
is  done,  I  have  been  curious  to  look  over  the  list 
of  my  authorities  with  reference  to  this  matter. 
It  turns  out  that  the  conclusions  arrived  at,  though 
they  may  be  advanced,  are  not  heretical ;  at  least 
the  authorities  from  whom  they  are  drawn  are 
almost  without  exception  of  one  or  another  ortho- 
dox connection.  The  names  of  a  few  of  the 
scholars  whose  judgment  has  been  most  relied  on 
are  here  appended,  and  with  a  sense  of  obligation 
which  it  is  hoped  the  reader  will  come  to  share, 
since  the  full  object  of  making  this  epitome  of 
some  of  their  labors  will  not  be  attained  unless  it 
lead  to  a  direct  study  of  these  sources  of  light. 
The  list  might  be  largely  extended,  but  the  main 
authorities  made  use  of  are  the  following  (in  alpha- 
betical order) : 

Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott,  London;  Professor  W. 
Bousset,  Gottingen ;  Dr.  Garl  Budde,  Marburg ; 
J.  Estlin  Carpenter,  Oxford;  Dr.  R.  H.  Charles, 
Dublin ;  Dr.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  Oxford ;  Dr.  Orello 
Cone,  recently  deceased,  my  boyhood  companion 


Preface  ix 

and  life-long  friend ;  Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson ;  Dr. 
S.  R.  Driver,  Oxford ;  Hermann  Guthe,  Leipsic ; 
Dr.  A.  Harnack,  Berlin ;  Professor  H.  J.  Holtz- 
mann,  Strassburg ;  Dr.  M.  R.  James,  Cambridge ; 
G.  A.  Jiilicker,  Marburg;  A.  Kamphausen,  Bonn  ; 
Dr.  E.  Kautzsch,  Halle  ;  W.  H.  Kosters  ;  Dr. 
A.  Kuenen  ;  Dr.  W.  C.  van  Manen,  Leyden ; 
Dr.  Karl  Marti,  Berne ;  Dr.  James  Martineau ; 
Eduard  Meyer,  Halle  ;  Professor  H.  G.  Mitchell, 
Boston  ;  Dr.  G.  F.  Moore,  Harvard  ;  Theodor 
Noldeke,  Strassburg ;  Dr.  O.  Plfleiderer,  Berlin  ; 
Dr.  Albert  Reville,  Paris ;  Auguste  Sabatier ; 
Dr.  P.  W.  Schmiedel,  Zurich ;  Professor  N. 
Schmidt,  Cornell ;  Dr.  B.  Stade,  Giessen  ;  Dr. 
C.  C.  Torrey,  Yale;  Dr.  C.  H.  Toy,  Harvard; 
Paul  Volz ;  Dr.  J.  Wellhausen,  Gottingen ;  Dr. 
H.  Winckler,  Berlin.    . 

Among  these  are  two  or  three  who  are  not 
called  orthodox,  but  nothing  of  importance  is 
taken  from  them  that  might  not  equally  well  have 
been  taken  from  the  others. 

I  should  be  proud  indeed  if  I  could  honestly 
present  as  my  own  discoveries  all  that  is  herein 
set  forth.     But  that  is  a  boast  beyond  what  even 


X  Preface 

the  greatest  can  make ;  and  then  it  is  to  be  said 

that  the  open  use  of  other  men's  ideas    may, 

in    conceivable   situations,    have   its   advantages. 

If  ever  this  volume  brings  down  upon  me  the 

charge  of  an  undue    radicalism,  of  sowing  the 

seeds  of  revolution,  I  can,  if  so  disposed,  drop 

under  cover  of  illustrious  names,  and  say  :    "  I 

have   been    sitting  at  the  feet  of .  the  foremost 

scholars  of  the  great  Evangelical  churches ;  their 

disclosures  have  filled  me  with  light  and  joy.    The 

substance  of  the  book  is  what  they  have  taught 

me." 

Newton   Mann. 

Omaha,  Nebraska,  September,  1905. 


CONTENTS 

[Sgg  Synopses  at  heads  of  Chapters^ 

PAGB 

INTRODUCTORY : 
Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject 13 

Religious  and  Literary  Evolution  in  Israel 

Chart :  following  page      26 

OLD    TESTAMENT. 

CHAPTER   I. 
The  Historical  Basis  —  Its  Immediate  Implications    .      29 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Development  of  Prophecy 57 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  Three  Extended  Prophecies ,      80 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Development  of  Law 102 

CHAPTER  V. 
Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy 126 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Wisdom  Literature ,    ,   .    1^6 


xii  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Other  Post-Exilic  Writings 167 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Development  OF  a  Spiritual  Worship  in  Israel  .   .   .    189 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Old  Testament  Canon      -208 

NEW  TESTAMENT. 

CHAPTER   X. 
The  Gospel  Sources 229 

CHAPTER   XI. 
The  Synoptic  Gospels 248 

CHAPTER   XII. 
Acts  of  the  Apostles 271 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
The  Pauline  Literature 293 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
The  Johannine  Literature 319 

CHAPTER   XV. 
Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament  Times     .   .   .    339 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
The  New  Testament  Canon 359 

Conclusion Z^3 

Index 373 


INTRODUCTORY: 

Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject. 

Extremes  of  reverence  and  of  indifference  —  What  is  the  Bible?  — 
Its  Jewish  origin  and  the  anti-Jewish  prejudice  —  Early  spread 
of  Christianity  in  face  of  that  prejudice  —  First  acceptance  of 
Jewish  sacred  books  in  Europe  more  nominal  than  real  —  Value 
of  the  Bible  as  a  book  of  religion  —  Assumption  as  to  its  super- 
natural character  —  Best  considered  the  surviving  literature  of 
an  ancient  people  —  Security  from  attack  on  that  basis  —  Deliv- 
erance from  any  need  of  forced  interpretations  —  No  difficulty 
then  presented  by  the  fact  that  many  of  its  precepts  are  par- 
alleled in  other  sacred  books  —  The  paradox  involved  in  regard- 
ing perception  of  divine  truth  as  a  distinctively  Jewish  gift  — 
Real  superiority  of  the  Jewish  race. 

THE  attitudes  of  people  toward  the  Bible  are 
many  and  various,  arising  from  a  mingling  of 
all  degrees  of  reverence  and  indifference.  Even 
the  extreme  of  reverence  which  accounts  this  book 
the  very  Word  of  God  is  accompanied  by  a  measure 
of  practical  indifference  to  its  contents  sufficiently 
surprising;  and  the  extreme  of  professed  disregard 
bows  to  an  apt  quotation  from  its  pages,  makes  oath 
upon  it,  keeps  it  in  the  house,  perhaps  slyly  uses  it  as 
an  amulet.      But  neither  its  unreserved  worshipers 


:ij^::y,:'^AelE^(iS!i(lio'n  of  a  Great  Literature 

nor  its  avowed  contemners  make  a  study  of  the  book 
in  the  way  other  books  are  studied.  To  one  party  its 
significance  is  too  low  to  repay  the  effort ;  to  the 
other  it  is  so  high  they  cannot  attain  to  it.  The 
latter  are  deterred  by  the  sanctity  of  the  book  from 
applying  the  means  of  elucidation  deemed  indispensable 
to  the  understanding  of  other  ancient  writings,  and 
content  themselves  with  the  old  and  exhausted  method 
of  textual  exegesis. 

To  another  order  of  minds  the  question  is  pressing, 
What  is  the  Bible  —  an  infallible  authority  miraculously 
given,  or  the  serious  literature  of  an  ancient  people, 
the  fruit  of  their  varied  experience  and  discipline } 
This  is  indeed  the  first  question  to  be  settled,  and 
when  one  has  got  so  far  as  to  ask  it,  there  is  little 
doubt  what  the  answer  will  be. 

A  strange  implication  of  the  theory  of  a  super- 
natural revelation  commonly  received  among  Chris- 
tians is,  that  only  Jews  were  ever  able  to  utter  so 
high  a  word.  The  readiness  with  which  this  exalted 
distinction  is  accorded  looks  the  more  mysterious 
when  we  consider  the  scorn  and  contempt  poured 
upon  Jews  time  out  of  mind,  the  persecution  they 
have  suffered  and  are  suffering  at  Christian  hands. 
The  trite  explanation  that  God  and  man  have  turned 
against  this  people  on  account  of  the  course  of  their 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         1 5 

ancestors  with  Jesus,  seems  to  lack  in  reason  and 
common  morality,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Christ-like 
spirit.  The  crime  charged,  if  established,  is  too  far 
back  to  be  a  ground  of  enmity  against  the  present 
generation,  or  to  justify  any  least  antipathy.  The 
prejudice  in  fact  defies  moral  justification,  being,  as 
a  recent  writer  has  shown,*  a  racial,  unreasoning 
instinct,  whose  activity  with  Aryan  peoples  in  pre- 
Christian  times  is  matter  of  history.  Religious  dif- 
ferences doubtless  heightened  the  antipathy  ;  they 
did  not  create  it.  Its  roots  are  deep  in  that  strange- 
ness which  goes  with  the  distinction  of  race  from 
race. 

That  full  in  the  face  of  this  racial  prejudice  the 
Hebrew  scriptures  should  have  won  their  way,  carry- 
ing with  them  recognition  of  the  Jews  as  God's 
**  chosen  people,"  seems  a  positive  demonstration  of 
the  superiority  of  those  scriptures.  And  such  indeed 
it  is ;  but  the  conditions  under  which  this  came  about 
are  to  be  taken  into  account.  Christianity,  when  it 
came  into  Europe  with  these  writings,  found  the 
Graeco-Roman  world  miserably  poor  in  religion  and 
in  religious  books  ;  and  what  the  new  religion  in  the 
days  of  its  first  great  expansion  presented  as  its  text- 


*  Shaler,  "  The  Neighbor." 


1 6         ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

book  was  far  from  being  the  whole  Jewish  scripture, 
or  even  the  whole  Jewish-Christian  scripture,  —  it  was 
John's  Gospel,  a  writing  deeply  tinged  with  Greek 
thought,  setting  forth  its  hero  in  Greek  terms  as  a 
divine  emanation  partaking  of  the  eternity  of  God, 
with  nothing  distinctively  Jewish  about  him.*  By 
that  time,  too,  the  bearers  of  the  Christian  message 
to  the  gentiles  had  ceased  to  be  Jews,  and  racial 
prejudice,  which  is  primarily  of  the  person,  subsided 
as  to  the  books,  and  these  were  taken  over  gradually 
and  with  ease  on  the  theory  that  Christians,  having 
become  the  people  of  God,  came  by  inheritance  into 
the  possession  of  whatever  He  had  given  to  His  for- 
mer chosen  people. 

But  adoption  and  ownership  do  not  necessarily 
imply  a  vital  connection.  If  racial  distinctions  are 
primarily  physical,  they  are  of  the  mind  also,  and 
reach  to  productions  of  the  mind.  A  race  has  char- 
acteristic modes  of  thought,  characteristic  forms  of 
expression,  difficult  or  distasteful,  it  may  be,  to  another 


*  If  the  Jesus  of  literal  history  might  seem  to  an  educated  gentile 
merely  as  an  individual  member  of  the  despised  Jewish  race,  the 
impression  must  necessarily  have  been  very  different  when,  as  now 
(in  the  Fourth  Gospel),  he  was  presented  as  the  Logos  of  God,  as 
the  world-principle  which  had  existed  long  before  Judaism  came 
into  being,  and  even  upon   earth  was   exalted  above  everything 

Jewish.  —  SCHMIEDEL. 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         17 

race.  The  Hebrew  scriptures  under  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  early  Christian  propaganda 
readily  enough  obtained  a  nominal  acceptance,  but 
their  distinctive  Hebrew  quality  prevented  a  complete 
surrender  to  them  save  in  exceptional  instances. 
Ascetics  of  the  middle  ages,  later,  the  Puritans,  took 
to  them  with  an  entire  devotion ;  but  the  mass  of 
converts  from  paganism  in  the  early  days  practically 
conditioned  their  acceptance  of  the  old  scriptures  on 
liberty  to  adhere  to  their  own  forms  and  customs 
without  adopting  the  Jewish ;  that  is,  made  it  a 
nominal  acceptance.  In  our  time,  we  must  admit, 
hardly  anybody  really  takes  the  Bible  in  earnest. 
It  is  found  impracticable  on  account  of  the  differ- 
ing oriental  habit  of  thought  and  expression,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  conditions  of  ancient  life  in  Pal- 
estine so  strongly  contrasting  with  the  Christian's 
environment  in  the  m'odern  world.  The  book  is  read, 
some  parts  with  a  sentimental  approval,  other  and 
large  parts  with  a  feeling  that  they  pertain  to  a  world 
long  since  passed  away ;  only  very  restricted  passages 
practically  laying  hold  of  the  present  life  of  man. 

We  are  now  beginning  to  wake  up  to  the  fact  that 
the  religious  center  of  the  world  for  us  is  not  in  some 
far  Asiatic  land,  and  back  two  or  three  thousand 
years,   but   here  and   now  in  the  existing  spiritual 


1 8         T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

nature  of  living  souls.  Religion  is  an  experience,  and 
must  be  living  and  personal ;  it  cannot  be  made  to 
consist  in  a  reflection  of  other  men's  experiences  in 
other  ages.  Such  experiences,  recorded  in  books, 
may  be  very  helpful,  but  they  cannot  be  for  us  the 
real  thing.  The  Bible,  which  we  have  received  froni 
the  Jews,  is  in  the  main  a  record  of  the  religious  ex- 
periences of  that  people  during  a  long  period,  and  as 
such  is  of  exceeding  value.  It  has  value  as  history, 
each  part  casting  some  light  on  the  time  in  which  it  was 
actually  written  ;  it  has  value  as  storehouse  of  Semitic 
traditions  covering  a  long  previous  period ;  but  its  chief 
worth  as  a  book  of  religion  lies  in  its  being  incidentally 
a  record  of  the  developing  spiritual  nature  of  a  people 
from  a  condition  of  rather  low  to  a  condition  of  very 
high  culture,  a  record  chiefly  made  up  of  the  out- 
givings of  the  nation's  foremost  souls  through  the 
successive  centuries  of  this  great  development.  The 
Hebrew  prophets  and  poets,  while  of  course  saying 
much  that  is  of  merely  local  and  temporary  concern, 
much,  too,  that  our  consciences  cannot  approve,  yet 
rose  at  times  to  the  utterance  of  universal  truth,  good 
for  all  times  and  places.  While  centering  our  religious 
life  on  our  own  inborn  spiritual  sensibilities,  we  derive 
from  these  lights  out  of  a  past  age  an  ever  grateful 
inspiration. 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         19 

The  assumption  of  a  supernatural  origin  for  the 
scriptures,  of  elements  in  them  that  could  never  have 
been  developed  from  the  human  heart  and  soul, 
burdens  the  modern  thinker  with  much  embarrass- 
ment. As  every  one  now  knows,  the  same  assumption 
is  made  by  the  Mohammedans  for  the  Koran,  by  the 
Hindus  for  the  Vedas,  —  by  each  one  of  the  great 
religions  in  turn,  for  its  sacred  book.  Each  will  claim 
that  its  book  and  its  book  alone  is  without  error,  the 
uncorrupted  Word  come  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven.  Among  Western  nations,  that  claim  has 
been  so  long  and  so  stoutly  iterated  and  reiterated  for 
the  Bible  that  the  uncritical  believe  it  to  be  estab- 
lished without  ever  asking  on  what  grounds.  But  the 
reflecting  have  come  to  a  better  judgment.  They  see 
that,  while  the  Bible  —  at  any  rate  for  people  of  our 
antecedents  —  is  the  best  of  all  the  sacred  books,  it 
is  not  by  any  means  free  from  errors  of  fact ;  that  it 
abounds  in  fabulous  stories,  myths,  and  legends ;  and 
that  its  moral  teaching  is  not  infrequently  open  to 
criticism.  And  this  is  the  verdict  not  of  the  enemies 
of  religion,  but  of  its  supporters  and  representatives. 
Christian  scholars  who  have  given  the  most  pains- 
taking, exhaustive  thought  to  the  subject.  We  hear 
the  cry  from  some  quarters  for  an  expurgated  Bible 
for  home  and  public  use,  for  an  authorized,  official 


20         ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

selection  of  devotional  literature  from  extra-biblical 
sources  to  supplement  the  Bible  in  the  services  of 
worship  —  a  step  which,  once  taken,  must  obliterate 
the  world-wide  distinction  now  formally  set  up  between 
canonical  and  other  religious  books.  Such  a  distinc- 
tion the  free-minded  are  coming  to  see  is  not  real. 
Everywhere  it  is  said  that  truth  wherever  found,  all 
truth,  is  of  God  ;  that  it  is  never  far  to  seek,  dropping 
plenteously  as  the  rain  from  heaven ;  and  the  thought- 
ful are  beginning  to  inquire  how  the  exclusive  use  of 
the  Bible  as  the  book  of  religion  comports  with  this. 
There  is  even  excited  in  some  minds,  by  this  exclusive 
use,  an  antagonism  to  the  Bible,  a  protest,  silent  per- 
haps, but  no  less  positive,  operating  to  its  prejudice. 
It  is  a  case  where  an  undue  disesteem  may  be  induced 
by  the  awarding  of  an  excessive  honor. 

Taking  the  position  in  theory,  and  supporting  it  in 
practice,  that  the  collection  of  little  books  called  the 
Bible  is  simply  the  surviving  religious  literature  of  an 
ancient  people,  we  are,  to  begin  with,  on  a  defensible 
basis,  secure  from  assaults  which  are  daily  making 
every  other  position  more  untenable ;  we  are  where 
we  cannot  be  embarrassed  by  anything  that  science 
may  discover  or  that  criticism  may  uncover.  Do  the 
geologists  and  the  archaeologists  point  out  that  the 
stories  of  the  creation  and  of  the  flood  are  without 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         1 1 

validity,  being  disproved  by  incontrovertible  evidences  ? 
We  are  prepared  to  accept  the  verdict  at  once  as 
nowise  surprising,  these  stories  in  Genesis  being 
obviously  only  old-time  myths  which  the  writer  found 
afloat  and  noted  down,  or  drew  from  more  ancient 
books.  Does  Professor  Delitzsch  remind  us  that  the 
so-called  Law  of  Moses  shows  conclusive  signs  of 
having  been  modeled  on  the  code  of  Hammurabi, 
king  of  Babylon?  That  is  what,  on  our  theory  of 
the  origin  of  the  Pentateuch,  is  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world.  Are  we  told  that  the  narratives 
of  the  Hebrew  sojourn  in  Egypt,  the  passage  thence, 
and  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  cannot  in  all  their  details 
be  true.?  Our  answer  is,  How  could  they  be,  the 
writer  lived  so  many  hundred  years  after  the  time  in 
which  his  scenes  are  laid  ?  Is  it  objected  that  the 
morals  of  Abraham  and  of  David,  and  of  many  another 
hero  of  the  record,  are  not  what  we  can  approve,  that 
Moses  made  mistakes,  that  prophets  prophesied  for 
the  most  part  what  never  came  to  pass  ?  We  have 
only  to  say  that  all  this  accords  perfectly  with  the 
rational  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  books.  So  with 
all  the  discoveries  of  errors  and  contradictions  in 
these  old  writings ;  we  are  not  surprised  and  we  are 
not  disturbed ;  our  position  is  in  no  way  threatened. 
In  other  words,  in  abandoning  the  notion  of  a  super- 


12        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

natural  revelation,  a  book  virtually  handed  down  from 
God  out  of  heaven,  infallible  in  every  part,  and  taking 
the  perfectly  natural  ground  that  the  old  Jews  wrote 
their  books  out  of  their  own  heads,  precisely  as  the 
old  Greeks  and  the  old  Romans  wrote  theirs,  we  are 
not  obliged  to  find  every  word  true,  every  precept 
pure,  every  commended  example  noble ;  we  are  on  a 
defensible  basis  as  regards  the  scriptures. 

And  this  is  the  only  attitude  of  approach  in  which 
the  inquirer  can  hope  to  come  to  the  real  significance 
of  these  writings.  Approaching  them  with  the  notion 
that  they  can  contain  nothing  but  what  is  absolutely 
true  and  good,  the  student  begins  to  wrest  from  its 
natural  sense  every  passage  which  on  its  face  conveys 
a  false  idea  or  breathes  a  spirit  of  cruelty  or  of  venge- 
ance, or  which  is  in  contradiction  with  some  other 
passage.  To  what  hideous  duplicity  have  commen- 
tators in  this  way  been  constrained  to  lend  themselves ! 
How  has  the  text  groaned  and  shrieked  under  the 
racks  and  thumb-screws  they  have  applied  to  it,  yield- 
ing up  at  last  in  an  agony  of  despair  any  imaginable 
sense  to  suit  the  requirements  of  its  tormentors  ! 

Coming  to  the  Bible  in  the  rational  way,  we  are  not 
distressed  to  find  that  some  of  the  best  things  in  it 
are  to  be  found  elsewhere,  in  writings  yet  older.  On 
the  contrary,  we  are  pleased  that  Zarathustra  and 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         23 

Confucius  and  Gautama  should  have  uttered,  centuries 
before  Jesus,  precepts  similar  to  his ;  it  speaks  well  for 
human  nature.  So  Mencius  and  Socrates  and  Seneca 
and  Epictetus  somehow  got  independently  at  the  fun- 
damental moral  ideas  expressed  in  the  Gospel.  Marcus 
Aurelius  was  probably  a  nobler  character  than  ever  sat 
on  the  throne  of  Israel  or  of  Judah.  But  the  partisans 
of  an  exclusive  revelation  are  in  much  trouble  over  these 
facts.  Whatever  the  explanation  of  them,  by  what- 
ever means  these  heathen  arrived  at  their  wisdom  and 
their  virtue,  it  is  stoutly  contended  that  the  Bible 
writers  did  not  do  their  work  without  special  illumina- 
tion from  on  high,  and,  by  the  hypothesis,  they  were 
the  only  ones  who  had  this  help.  There  seems  to  be 
here,  from  this  point  of  view,  the  implication  of  natural 
moral  and  spiritual  inferiority  in  the  Jew.  Though 
the  theory  has  been  received  from  the  Jews  them- 
selves, does  there  not  crop  out  in  the  maintenance  of 
it  in  the  light  of  what  we  now  know  of  other  "  seekers 
after  God,"  something  of  the  general  scorn  of  Chris- 
tians for  the  Jew .?  Is  there  not  discernible  here,  — 
in  the  disinclination  to  exalt  him  to  the  rank  of  saying, 
unaided,  what  the  seers  of  other  races  have,  at  least 
in  part,  said,  —  a  disposition  to  belittle  the  Jew  in  this 
matter,  make  him  the  mere  tool  of  the  Almighty, 
who,  having  used  him  for  a  purpose  and  found  him 


24       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

wanting,  casts  him  off  ?  Does  it  not  seem  as  though 
the  whole  doctrine  of  a  "chosen  people  "were  now 
taken  to  illustrate  the  saying  that  "  God  chose  the 
foolish  things  of  the  world  that  he  might  put  to 
shame  them  that  are  wise,  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  that  he  might  put  to  shame  the  things  that  are 
strong,  and  the  base  things  of  the  world  and  the 
things  that  are  despised  did  God  choose,  that  no  flesh 
might  glory  before  God  "  ?  This  admitted,  the  theory 
of  a  chosen  people  may  in  a  manner  be  harmonized 
with  age-long  Aryan  contempt  and  persecution  of  that 
same  people.  Of  course  there  remains  what  must  be 
a  bitter  reflection,  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  a  Jew. 
But  the  imputation  is  partially  met  by  the  doctrine 
announced  toward  the  close  of  the  first  century  that 
he  was  not  the  son  of  Joseph,  and,  in  the  Catholic 
Church,  by  the  doctrine  of  the  immaculate  conception 
of  his  mother,  decreed  in  1854.*  Then,  with  all 
Trinitarians,  there  is  the  overpowering  consideration 
of  his  divinity,  which  dwarfs  to  insignificance  every 
distinction  of  race. 

But  in  the  face  of  Aryan  scorn  the  fact  is  that  of 


*  These  two  dogmas  taken  together  might  be  supposed  to  im- 
ply that  Jesus  was  only  one-fourth  Jew ;  but  it  is  just  to  say  that 
Catholic  expounders  of  the  papal  decree  do  not  carry  it  so  far  as 
altogether  to  deliver  "  the  Virgin  Mary  "  from  the  charge  of  having 
a  human,  and  so  of  course  a  Jewish,  father. 


Attitude  of  Approach  to  the  Subject         25 

all  the  races  of  men  the  Jew  stands  at  the  head  in 
many  most  important  respects.  He  has  been  in  the 
modern  world  conspicuous  among  financiers,  artists, 
philosophers,  statesmen.  He  writes  books,  publishes 
newspapers,  holds  official  positions,  influences  public 
opinion,  far  out  of  proportion  to  his  numbers.  There 
is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  race  was  relatively  less 
efficient  in  the  old  days ;  it  was  probably  very  much 
more  so.  The  very  persistence  of  this  people  since 
the  loss  of  political  independence  so  long  ago  speaks 
for  the  racial  stamina  then  possessed.  Besides,  they 
had  markedly  in  the  old  days  what  we  may  call  a 
genius  for  religion,  as  the  Greeks  had  for  philosophy 
and  for  art,  as  the  Romans  had  for  law  and  for  arms. 
No  people  were  ever  so  fitted  by  native  endowment 
and  by  experience  to  produce  religious  writings  of 
permanent  value.  It  belonged  to  them  to  make  the 
Bible,  and  they  made  it  as  naturally  as  Greece  made 
the  Homeric  poems. 

As  this  work  of  production  extended  over  a  period 
of  about  a  thousand  years,  we  are  prepared  to  see  in 
it  a  reflection  of  the  varying  civilization  of  that  event- 
ful millennium,  a  gradual  widening  and  elevation  of 
the  thought  of  God,  a  slow  but  sure  gain  in  morals,  a 
yet  slower  spiritualization  of  worship,  in  all  of  which 
there  is  manifested,  in  the  one  case  most  accessible 


26        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

for  our  study,  the  evolution  of  a  great  religion.  No 
more  instructive  subject  of  contemplation  can  be 
offered,  and  no  more  signal  triumph  has  been  made 
than  here  for  the  scientific  method,  which  tends 
ever  to  the  systemization  of  knowledge  and  to  the 
unification  of  systems. 


OLD  TESTAMENT 


The   Evolution  of  a  Great 
Literature 


CHAPTER   I. 

The  Historical  Basis  —  Its  Immediate 
Implications. 

Antiquity  to  which  Hebrew  writings  can  be  traced  —  Probability 
that  earlier  books  existed  which  have  not  been  preserved  — 
Moses,  myth  or  man  ?  —  Babylonian  influence  on  Hebrew 
thought  —  Thence  the  Creation  and  Deluge  myths,  type  of  Law, 
the  Sabbath,  magic  rites,  healing  art  —  Authenticity  of  Hebrew 
history  —  Was  there  a  sojourn  in  Egypt?  —  Condition  of  the 
tribes  on  arrival  in  Canaan  —  Conquest  of  Canaan  —  The  tribal 
deity  and  his  worship  —  Character  of  Samuel  —  Saul,  David, 
Solomon  —  Revolt  of  the  Northern  tribes  —  Elijah,  Elisha  — 
Crude  beginnings  of  prophecy  —  Amos,  Hosea,  and  the  open- 
ing of  a  literary  age  —  Gain  in  half  a  millennium. 

A  BOOK  is  not  necessarily  as  old  as  the  events 
it  treats  of.     Nobody  ever  supposed  that  the 
first  chapters  of  Genesis,  because  they  contain 
an  account  of  the  creation  and  of  the  first  created 
pair,  really  date  from  the  time  of  those  events.     Still, 


30        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

such  a  supposition  would  be  attended  with  only  the 
same  sort  of  difficulty  as  is  the  claim  for  Mosaic 
authorship,  namely :  it  is  not  possible  to  trace  the 
book  back  so  far,  or  any  part  of  it,  along  Hebrew 
lines.  The  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  b.  c.  is 
the  earliest  point  to  which  any  part  of  the  Bible  caii 
be  definitely  traced  in  Israel,  and  there  we  are  yet 
five  hundred  years  this  side  of  Moses.  In  that  cent- 
ury wrote  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  and  Micah.  But 
buried  in  what  are  called  the  Legal  and  the  His- 
torical books,  coming  first  in  order  in  our  Bible, 
are  considerable  fragments  which  appear  to  have 
descended  from  an  earlier  time.  The  value  of  these 
is  extremely  uncertain,  owing  to  the  fact  that  we  do 
not  know  in  what  manner  they  were  preserved  up  to 
the  time  of  their  embodiment  in  the  books  that  have 
come  down  to  us.  A  previous  generation  of  critics  sup- 
posed these  fragments  to  be  derived  from  oral  tradition 
and  from  rude  memoranda  handed  down  from  ances- 
tors who  hardly  knew  how  to  write,  —  material  which 
the  compilers  felt  free  to  expand  and  embellish ;  on 
which  supposition  the  historical  value  of  accounts 
relating  to  a  far  previous  time  would  have  to  be  reck- 
oned very  low.  The  discoveries  of  the  last  thirty 
years  have  necessitated  some  modification  of  this 
view.     The  records  of  the  monuments,  Babylonian, 


'The  Historical  Basis  31 

Assyrian,  Syrian,  have  cast  a  fresh  light  on  the  sub- 
ject. From  these  we  have  abundant  reason  to  think 
that  the  region  where  the  IsraeUtes  dwelt  when  we 
first  hear  of  them  as  a  settled  people  was  then  meas- 
urably civilized.  Though  they  were  at  that  time  a 
combination  of  rude  tribes,  —  ruder,  it  would  seem, 
than  their  neighbors  or  the  people  they  displaced,  at 
least  a  portion  of  them  having,  as  their  traditions 
indicate,  been  rovers  of  the  desert,  —  they  must,  on 
acquiring  a  fixed  habitation  somewhere  about  1300 
B.  c,  have  come  more  directly  under  the  influence  of 
Babylonian  culture,  which  had  then  for  many  centuries 
permeated  all  western  Asia.  This  is  no  longer  matter 
of  speculation,  but  rests  on  positive  and  incontrovert- 
ible evidence.  Not  only  has  there  been  brought  to 
light  proof  of  a  Babylonian  civilization  extending  to 
the  Mediterranean  long  before  the  beginnings  of 
Hebrew  history  ;  we  have  already  large  knowledge  of 
the  quality  of  that  civilization,  of  the  government, 
laws,  religious  and  other  customs  of  the  people,  and 
are  able  to  point  with  precision  to  certain  things  which 
the  Hebrews  beyond  a  question  adopted  from  them. 
And  with  the  adoption  of  customs,  legends,  laws,  there 
must  have  gone  some  infusion  of  a  more  varied  culture. 
The  literary  traits  of  the  Babylonians  would  have 
some  few  imitators ;  there  would  be  those  who  would 


32       ne  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

make  records,  though  failure  to  follow  their  teachers 
in  the  use  of*  imperishable  tablets  leaves  us  without 
positive  proof  of  this.  Egypt,  too,  in  the  early  period 
must  have  exercised  a  certain  influence  in  the  same 
direction,  though  racial  antagonism  and  lack  of  affinity 
for  Egyptian  customs  and  ideas  stood  in  the  way.  On 
the  whole,  therefore,  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  the 
Hebrews  were  without  books  anterior  to  the  eighth 
century  b.  c.  The  very  high  character  of  the  earliest 
authors  whose  books  are  preserved  to  us  under  their 
names  —  Amos  and  Hosea  —  compels  us  to  think 
that  they  had  their  predecessors  whose  works  have 
not  been  preserved,  except  as  merged  in  the  History 
and  Law  books.  How  far  back  we  can  reasonably 
extend  such  a  conjecture  is  a  more  troublesome 
question.  Certainly  the  farther  we  carry  it  the  more 
tenuous  it  becomes ;  five  hundred  years  puts  it  to 
a  great  strain,  and  we  do  not  wonder  at  the  hesi- 
tancy of  scholars  to  admit  that  we  have  anything  that 
we  can  say  with  the  least  confidence  is  from  the  hand 
of  Moses.  Winckler,  Cheyne,  and  others  of  the  very 
ablest  critics  do  not  see  that  the  evidence  is  adequate 
to  establish  Moses  as  an  historical  character.  If, 
however,  there  was  such  a  person,  it  is  less  difficult 
than  it  was  fifty  years  ago  to  think  that  he  could  read 
and  write,  that  he  left  behind  for  the  guidance  of  his 


"the  Historical  Basis  2tZ 

people  some  few  written  regulations.  At  any  rate, 
we  are  not  barred  from  supposing  that  scraps  of 
writing  were  made  by  Hebrews  away  back  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  serving  as  a 
lodgment  for  the  tribal  traditions.  Whatever  was 
written  in  centuries  anterior  to  Amos  would  be 
strongly  colored  by  Babylonian  conceptions,  and  the 
historical  narrative  extending  from  the  creation  to  the 
exodus  would  be  taken,  when  it  came  to  be  made, 
largely  from  legends  preserved  by  the  older  and 
kindred  people. 

The  main  question,  therefore,  antecedent  to  our 
inquiry  regards  the  Babylonian  culture.  Thanks  to 
the  excavations  which  are  bringing  to  the  light  of  day 
multitudinous  records  of  the  people  who,  from  the 
mighty  city  by  the  Euphrates,  so  long  shaped  the 
destinies  of  half  the  world,  —  original  writings  made 
four  thousand,  five  thousand  years  ago,  —  we  are  in 
possession  of  a  large  amount  of  precise  information  on 
this  subject.  That  people  not  only  built  magnificent 
cities,  marshaled  mighty  armies,  carried  agriculture  to 
high  perfection  by  vast  systems  of  irrigation ;  they 
had  courts  with  systematic  legal  process,  an  elaborate 
code  already  a  thousand  years  old  in  the  time  of 
Moses  ;  they  had  a  literature  of  such  imposing  dimen- 
sions that  men  enough  cannot  now  be  found  to  trans- 


34       '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

late  the  debris  of  it  which  is  being  gathered  up,  — 
poetry,  philosophy,  cosmogony,  ritual,  magic,  and  what 
not.  To  astronomy  they  were  the  first  to  give  atten- 
tion, and  for  thousands  of  years  Babylon  was  famed 
for  its  observatories.  They  had  their  legend  of  how 
the  earth  and  the  heavens  were  made,  properly  speak- 
ing a  myth,  the  chief  of  all  the  many  myths  of  this 
myth-making  people.  There  are  even  two  forms  of 
it,  as  of  the  Hebrew  creation-story.  The  Babylonians 
located  Paradise  in  their  own  country,  by  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  Hebrew  story  connects  the  place 
with  the  same  river.  Next  to  the  creation-myth  in 
prominence  in  Babylonian  story  comes  that  of  the 
Deluge.  Its  parallelism  with  the  Bible  flood-story  is 
striking,  as  may  be  seen  from  this  paraphrase  of  it, 
taken  from  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica : 

The  gods,  more  especially  Bel,  wroth  at  the  sins  of 
men,  determine  to  bring  upon  them  a  judgment  con- 
sisting in  a  great  all-destroying  flood.  One  of  the 
gods,  however,  named  Ea,  selects  a  favored  man  for 
deliverance.  This  man  is,  in  a  dream,  acquainted  by 
Ea  with  the  purpose  of  the  gods,  and  commanded  to 
build  a  ship,  the  form  of  which  is  prescribed,  as  a 
means  of  saving  his  life,  and  to  take  with  him  into  it 
"seeds  of  life  of  all  kinds."  Accordingly  the  ship  is 
built ;  its  dimensions  are  given  with  great  precision 
by  the  myth-maker,  who  mentions*  that  it  was  coated 
within  and  without  with  bitumen,  and  that  cells  were 


T^he  Historical  Basis 


35 


made  in  it.  Into  this  vessel  the  favored  of  Ea  brings 
gold  and  silver  and  "  seeds  of  life  of  all  kinds," 
besides  his  family  and  servants,  beasts  of  the  field 
and  wild  beasts.  Shortly  before  the  Flood,  the 
beginning  of  which  is  made  known  to  him  by  a  special 
sign,  he  enters  the  ship  and  bars  the  door,  while  his 
steersman  takes  over  the  direction  of  the  vessel. 
Upon  this  the  deluge  begins  :  it  is  thought  of  as  an 
unloosing  of  all  the  elemental  powers,  torrents  of  rain, 
storm  and  tempest,  together  with  thick  darkness. 
The  waters  rise  higher  and  higher  till  the  whole  land 
becomes  a  sea ;  all  men  and  animals  except  those  in 
the  ship  perish.  At  length  a  calm  sets  in ;  the 
master  of  the  ship  opens  the  air-hole  and  observes 
the  widespread  ruin.  At  the  same  time  land  emerges, 
and  the  ship  grounds  on  the  mountain  of  Nisir. 
After  seven  days  more  he  sends  out  successively  a 
dove,  a  swallow,  and  a  raven.  The  dove  and  the 
swallow,  finding  no  place  of  rest,  return  to  the  ship  ; 
but  the  raven  is  seen  no  more.  Upon  this  he  clears 
the  ship  and  offers  a  sacrifice  on  the  summit  of  the 
mountain.  "The  gods  smelt  the  savor,  the  gods 
smelt  the  sweet  savor;  the  gods  gathered  Uke  flies 
about  the  sacrificer." 

This  and  other  stories  with  which  we  have  grown 
familiar  in  their  biblical  form  were  published  in 
Babylon  and  were  current  all  over  western  Asia 
centuries  before  a  word  of  the  Bible  was  written, 
before  the  Israelites  came  into  Canaan.  The  code  of 
Hammurabi  also,  on  which  the  Mosaic  code  is  obvi- 
ously based,  must  have  been  familiar  throughout  this 
region  from  the  time  that  Babylon  rose  to  be  a  great 


^6        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

power.  We  are  therefore  led  to  think  that  these 
elements  of  the  Hexateuch  (as  the  first  six  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  called)  may  have  been  adapted 
and  put  in  writing  by  the  Hebrews  more  extensively 
and  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  a  few  years  ago  was 
considered  possible.  It  is  no  longer  necessary  to 
suppose  that  the  people  could  only  have  learned  these 
things  by  an  exile  in  Babylonia. 

If  Babylon  diffused  its  light  and  its  law  over 
hither  Asia  in  the  second  and  third  millenniums 
before  Christ,  it  also  diffused  its  superstitions,  of 
which  it  had  no  lack.  As  in  all  the  early  civilizations, 
magic  cut  a  great  figure  with  this  people,  confounding 
itself,  as  elsewhere,  with  their  religion.  Seven  was  a 
magical  number  with  the  Babylonians ;  so  the  seventh 
day  with  them  was  a  sacred  day,  a  Sabbath.  Recent 
discoveries  prove  conclusively  that  this  institution 
among  the  Hebrews  was  derived  directly  from  this 
source.  This  is  no  disparagement  of  the  Sabbath ; 
it  must  have  come  from  somewhere ;  and  it  is  well  to 
know  to  whom  we  are  indebted,  and  to  give  credit  to 
whom  credit  is  due. 

The  priests  in  Babylon  had  the  administration  of 
law  as  well  as  of  religion  in  their  hands;  and,  as  all 
physical  and  other  ailments  were  held  to  be  of  spiritual 
origin,  that  is,  the  effect  of  some  spell  worked  by  evil 


The  Historical  Basis  37 

spirits,  they,  as  the  spiritual  functionaries,  were  also 
healers,  thus  combining  in  themselves  the  three  lead- 
ing modern  professions.  There  were  specially  sacred 
places  where  cures  were  wrought  with  particular 
efficiency,  as  now  at  Lourdes.  One  of  these  was 
Eridu,  six  thousand  years  ago  the  sea-port  of  Babylon, 
situated  at  the  then  mouth  of  the  Euphrates,  but, 
unlike  modern  sea-ports,  much  more  of  a  religious 
than  a  commercial  center.  The  medical  prescriptions 
of  that  far-off  time  which  have  been  exhumed  are  of 
the  most  extraordinary.  One  and  all,  they  go  on  the 
theory  that  disease  is  a  demon ;  and  the  whole  art  of 
healing  lies  in  driving  the  demon  out  of  the  patient 
by  one  and  another  magical  procedure.  A  number  of 
these  old  prescriptions  have  been  translated,  and  they 
give  a  vivid  idea  of  the  hapless  lot  of  the  sick  in  the 
early  millenniums  of  history.  They  were  generally 
written  in  verse,  an  indication  of  studious  care  neg- 
lected by  modern  practitioners.  In  producing  one  of 
them  here,  an  effort  is  made  to  preserve  the  metrical 
feature  of  the  original.  The  appeal  to  magic  is  not 
more  distinct  than  in  the  reported  case  of  Moses 
curing  the  bites  of  venomous  snakes  by  means  of  a 
brazen  snake  set  on  a  pole,  or  than  in  Elisha's  prescrip- 
tion of  a  seven-fold  ablution  for  the  cure  of  leprosy. 
It  was  written  apparently  for  a  desperate  case  accom- 


38        ne  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

panied  by  fractious  delirium.  Observe  that  the  magi- 
cal knots  have  to  be  twisted  twice  seven  times,  and 
that  the  patient  is  to  undergo  very  rough  handling. 

Twice  seven  times  tie  him  to  his  bed, 

Mingling  spells  of  Eridu  ;  , 

Bind  the  sick  man's  aching  head, 

Bind  his  neck  till  he  is  blue ; 
Bind  his  life  lest  it  escape, 

Bind  his  limbs,  and  bind  them  fast, 
Bind  him  in  such  wildering  shape. 

That  Disease  shall  fly  aghast.  * 

Derision  of  this  treatment  may  lie  in  the  story  of 
Samson,  bound  with  green  withes  and  ropes,  but 
medical  art  hardly  ever  got  beyond  this  sort  of  thing 
in  Israel,  as  witnesses  a  prescription  for  blindness  in 
John  9  :  ^yj. 

Naturally  the  rude  Hebrews,  coming  about  1300 
B.  c.  more  directly  into  the  circle  of  Babylonian  influ- 
ence, absorbed  first  some  of  the  magic  arts,  the  myths, 
the  legends ;  then  something  of  the  civil  code.  These 
elements  in  the  Pentateuch,  we  may  readily  imagine, 
began  to  take  written  form  soon  after  the  advent  of 
the  people  in  Canaan,  slowly  growing  to  something 
more  considerable  from  century  to  century.  Docu- 
ments thus  produced  would,  at  a  later  day,  with  more 


*  For  the  original,  see  Sayce,  "The  Higher  Criticism  and  the 
Monuments,"  p.  7  5. 


T^he  Historical  Basis  39 

or  less  modification,  go  into  books  which,  after  suc- 
cessive changes,  came  to  be  held  sacred,  and  thus 
acquired  persistence,  secure  from  further  change.  Of 
other  elements,  particularly  the  elaborate  ceremonial 
regulations,  we  cannot  admit  so  much.  A  rude  people 
does  not  take  to  these  refinements  readily.  The 
Hebrews  could  have  had  no  use  for  the  priestly  law 
of  Leviticus  in  the  time  of  Moses,  nor  for  hundreds 
of  years  thereafter.  This  kind  of  thing  must  be 
sifted  out  and  relegated  to  a  later  age. 

A  true  historical  conception  of  Israel  is  the  only 
basis  of  a  just  and  promising  examination  into  the  age 
and  authorship  of  the  various  portions  of  the  Old 
Testament.  And  first  of  all  we  come  to  the  question 
of  the  sojourn  of  the  people  in  Egypt.  If  the  dis- 
covery of  very  ancient  Babylonian  sources  for  many 
of  the  myths  and  legal  regulations  of  the  Pentateuch 
has  led  us  to  accord  a  higher  antiquity  than  hereto- 
fore to  the  Hebrew  adaptations  of  them,  absence,  in 
all  the  countless  Egyptian  inscriptions  that  have  been 
examined,  of  the  least  reference  to  the  coming  of  the 
Israelites  into  Egypt,  their  stay  there,  or  their  exodus, 
casts  grave  doubt  on  the  whole  Hebrew  account  of 
that  matter.  Add  to  this  the  suspicious  fact  that  the 
story  is  encumbered  with  the  most  astounding  prod- 
igies performed  by  Moses  to  constrain  the  Pharaoh 


40       T'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

to  consent  to  his  scheme  and  in  the  execution  of  it, 
and  the  whole  story  of  the  Egyptian  sojourn  becomes 
exceedingly  dubious.  While  the  grandiose  and  long- 
accepted  theory  of  a  bondage  in  Egypt  has  not  been 
generally  abandoned  by  scholars,  there  is  an  evident 
tendency  to  question  its  soundness,  and  to  turn  to 
the  more  tenable  view  that  in  their  beginnings  the 
Hebrews  were  not  in  Egypt  in  any  considerable  num- 
bers, but  dwelt,  or  wandered,  on  the  Arabian  side  of 
the  Red  Sea,  on  and  about  the  Sinaitic  peninsula. 
This  view  explains  without  the  aid  of  a  miracle  the 
sanctity  in  which  Sinai  was  always  held  by  the 
Hebrews  :  it  was  the  original  seat  of  their  tribal 
existence.  Any  view  which  obviates  the  difficulty  of 
the  non-mention  of  Israel  on  the  Egyptian  monuments 
so  far  commends  itself. 

We  may  well  suppose  that  a  small  fraction  of  the 
Israelites  lived  over  the  border  in  Egypt,  and  were, 
by  some  political  convulsion  or  racial  persecution  about 
the  time  of  the  reported  exodus,  driven  out  to  join 
the  bulk  of  their  tribe  in  the  neighborhood  of  Sinai. 
The  whole  people  under  such  circumstances  would 
naturally  be  disquieted  by  their  proximity  to  Egypt, 
and  be  led  to  withdraw  farther  into  the  Arabian 
desert.  Thus  may  have  ensued  the  wandering  there 
through  long  years,  of  which  there  seems  to  have  been 


The  Historical  Basis  41 

preserved  an  authentic  tradition,  mixed,  however,  in 
the  record,  with  much  of  myth  and  marvel.  The 
whole  preceding  story  of  Jacob  and  his  sons  going 
down  into  Egypt  and  growing  there  into  a  people 
millions  strong,  their  trials  and  bondage,  and  their 
final  passage  out  through  the  Red  Sea,  becomes  on 
this  theory  a  fiction  of  the  Hebrew  imagination. 
Then,  the  notion  that  they  brought  into  Palestine,  on 
their  appearance  there,  a  strict  monotheism,  a  high 
ethical  standard,  and  an  elaborate  ritual,  must  be  dis- 
missed as  sheer  fantasy.  They  arrived  there  decidedly 
crude  sons  of  the  desert,  chiefly  distinguished  for  a 
barbaric  ferocity  in  battle.  Then  and  for  long  after, 
these  people  worshiped  no  end  of  gods.  They  had 
their  own  tribal  god  to  whom  they  gave  special  adher- 
ence, but  he  was  in  those  days  a  conception  which 
certainly  could  command  no  reverence  in  the  modern 
world.  The  name  they  gave  him,  commonly  written 
"Jehovah,"  is  better  pronounced  Yahw6,  say  the 
Hebrew  scholars,  and,  for  psychological  reasons  as 
as  well  as  philological,  it  is  desirable  to  substitute  that 
form.  The  term  "Jehovah,"  from  long  association 
with  Christian  names  of  deity,  suggests  conceptions 
which  have  no  likeness  to  the  early  Hebrew  idea,  and 
it  obstructs  a  just  criticism  by  interposing  a  term 
which  has  acquired  an   undue  sanctity  to  our  ears. 


42        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

The  Yahw^  of  three  thousand  years  ago  was  the  twin- 
brother  of  Molech,  a  fierce  and  merciless  being,  re- 
flecting the  temper  of  a  ferocious  band  of  invaders. 
The  rites  by  which  he  was  worshiped  were  bloody  and 
revolting,  but  comparatively  simple,  having  no  like- 
ness to  the  ritual  long  after  adopted  and  attributed  to 
Moses.  Indeed,  eight  hundred  years  after  Moses  is 
as  early  a  date  as  can  now  be  maintained  for  the  books 
containing  the  fully  developed  priestly  regulations. 

The  book  of  Joshua,  Hke  the  historical  parts  of 
the  preceding  books  (of  Deuteronomy  there  will  be 
occasion  to  speak  more  particularly  later  on),  while 
evidently  not  written  in  the  period  of  which  it  treats, 
is,  in  its  substance,  much  older  than  the  priestly  rules 
of  Leviticus.  It  deals  with  an  event  really  historical, 
namely,  the  conquest  of  the  little  strip  of  territory 
along  the  west  side  of  the  Jordan  on  which  the  Israel- 
ites did  actually  establish  themselves.  However,  the 
obvious  desire  of  the  author  to  lift  his  hero  into  a 
worthy  successor  of  Moses  leads  him  into  exaggera- 
tions and  apparent  misstatements  which  largely  vitiate 
the  historical  quality  of  his  work.  Certainly  no  such 
uniformly  triumphant  entry  into  Canaan,  and  no  such 
utter  destruction  of  cities  and  ruthless  butchery  of 
their  inhabitants,  took  place  as  he  relates.  We  know 
well  that  Israel  was  not,  at  that  time,  nor  even  for 


The  Historical  Basis  43 

centuries  thereafter,  a  nation  united  and  prepared  for 
such  a  thoroughgoing  conquest.  What  is  more,  the 
very  towns  which  Joshua  is  said  to  have  razed  to  the 
ground,  and  the  tribes  which  he  wiped  out  root  and 
branch,  appear  in  the  record  presently  none  the  worse 
for  it.  The  fact  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  that, 
from  the  death  of  Moses  down  to  Saul,  the  Hebrews 
were  barely  able  to  keep  a  foothold  in  the  new  coun- 
try, were  in  constant  danger  of  extermination  by  their 
neighbors,  and  were  torn  by  dissensions  among  them- 
selves. They  divided  into  numerous  incoherent  tribes, 
and  committed  upon  each  other,  as  we  read  in  the 
book  of  Judges,  the  atrocities  of  Bedouins  or  of  wild 
Indians.  Occasionally  a  chief  of  some  tribe  would 
acquire  sufficient  prestige  to  bring  under  his  direction 
one  or  two  other  tribes  and  do  something  notable, 
leaving  a  name  for  valor,  as  in  the  cases  of  Gideon 
and  Deborah ;  but  even  then  the  remaining  tribes 
would  interpose  their  jealousies  and  treacheries,  pre- 
venting any  conclusive  triumph  out  of  which  the 
unification  of  Israel  might  have  become  possible. 

Through  all  this  obscure  period  we  may  be  sure 
the  development  of  the  Hebrew  religion  out  of  a  very 
crude  type  went  on  as  slowly  as  the  development  of 
the  commonwealth.  Those  children  of  the  desert 
cared  for  no  ornate  ritual,  no  refined  morality.     A 


44       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

class  of  seers  sprung  up,  who  acted  the  part  of  priests 
and  served  as  oracles,  combining  zeal  for  Yahw^  with 
a  mercilcssness  toward  the  Canaanites,  the  very 
thought  of  which  makes  the  blood  run  cold.  Their 
chief  office  seems  to  have  been  to  fire  the  people  up 
to  fiercest  conflicts  with  their  neighbors.  The  priestly 
functions  performed  by  them  bore  no  resemblance  to 
what  is  prescribed  in  the  later  Law,  but  consisted 
largely  in  the  care  of  a  great  fetish  called  the  "ark  of 
the  covenant."  About  this  fetish  the  superstitions  of 
the  people  gathered  for  centuries.  Its  presence  in 
battle,  like  a  Russian  icon^^  was  depended  on  to  give 
victory  to  its  adorers ;  or  if,  in  spite  of  it,  the  fortunes 
of  war  proved  adverse,  and  the  ark  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  report  says  it  wrought  such  mischief 
among  them  that  they  were  glad  to  bring  it  back  to 
its  proper  possessors.  It  was  a  ticklish  thing  to 
handle,  and  played  havoc  with  its  own  worshipers 
if  they  did  not  keep  at  a  respectful  distance.  Thus 
we  have  the  story  that  once,  when  the  Philistines 
were  returning  the  captured  ark  to  the  Israelites,  the 
people  of  a  certain  town  received  it  with  too  familiar 
an  affection,  venturing  to  raise  the  lid  and  look  in. 
For  this  temerity  50,000  of  them,  or,  to  be  exact, 
50,070,  were  smitten  dead  by  the  hand  of  Yahwe 
himself.     A  Being  as  severe  as  this  with  his  friends 


T^he  Historical  Basis  45 

could  of  course  have  no  mercy  on  his  enemies.  They 
were  his  best  followers  who  killed  the  greatest  number 
of  the  worshipers  of  some  other  god.  The  fault  of 
Saul  in  the  eyes  of  the  prophet  Samuel  was  that  he 
was  not  sufficiently  possessed  with  the  passion  of 
exterminating  the  neighboring  tribes.  Thus  we  are 
told  that  when  Saul  conquered  the  Amalekites  "  with 
great  slaughter,"  Samuel  was  incensed  with  him 
because  he  spared  Agag,  the  king.  He  furiously 
berated  Saul,  and  finally  said:  "Bring  ye  hither  to 
me  Agag,  the  king  of  the  Amalekites."  In  all 
humility  Agag  "came  to  him  delicately,  and  said, 
*  Surely  the  bitterness  of  death  is  past.*"  Upon 
which,  then  and  there,  so  reads  the  account, "  Samuel 
hewed  Agag  in  pieces  before  Yahw^." 

Perhaps  through  failing  to  satisfy  the  religious 
zealots,  perkaps  because  too  early  cut  off,  Saul,  though 
called  the  first  king  of  Israel,  never  got  control  of  all 
the  tribes.  That  distinction  was  reserved  for  the 
more  unscrupulous  man  of  blood  who  succeeded  him. 
David  closely  filled  the  prophetic  idea  of  what  a  royal 
leader,  a  "  man  after  Yahw^'s  own  heart,"  ought  to 
be,  and  by  a  series  of  sanguinary  wars  made  himself 
a  veritable  king.  At  his  hand  the  alien  tribes  round 
about,  one  after  another,  c^me  to  grief,  the  dominion 
of  Israel  was  extended  in  ^U  directions;  Jebus,  the 


46       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

site  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
Canaanites,  was  besieged  and  taken,  and  there  the 
victorious  chieftain  established  his  seat  of  government. 
Such  distinguished  success  in  arms  threw  around 
this  king's  name  a  glamour  which  to  this  day  has  made 
him  pass  for  what  he  was  not.  Though  a  bloody- 
handed  man,  guilty  of  many  a  crime,  he  has  been 
reckoned  a  saint,  credited  with  the  authorship  of  the 
book  of  Psalms,  and  even  gospel  writers  labored  to 
establish  the  descent  of  the  Messiah  from  him.  He 
was  not,  perhaps,  worse  than  many  another  king  of 
his  time ;  probably  had  some  admirable  qualities  in 
addition  to  his  prowess,  or  he  could  hardly  have  so 
won  the  lasting  affection  of  his  people ;  but  certainly 
in  much  that  is  recorded  of  him  he  played  the  part  of 
an  unspeakable  barbarian.  Queen  Victoria's  feeling 
about  David  did  honor  to  her  just  discrimination  of 
character.  Sir  John  Robinson  is  authority  for  the 
statement  that  when,  one  day,  a  lady-in-waiting  piously 
ejaculated  to  her  Majesty,  "  Oh,  Madam,  how  delight- 
ful it  will  be  in  heaven  to  see  the  prophets  and  saints 
of  the  past,  to  see  Aaron  and  Moses  and  Elijah  and 
David  1 "  the  queen  responded  instantly  and  emphat- 
ically :  "  No,  no ;  nobody  will  ever  persuade  me  to 
know  David."  The  queen  could  not  get  out  of  her 
mind  the  affair  of  Uriah,  or  this  king's  treatment  of 


ne  Historical  Basis  47 

prisoners  of  war,  which  was  rough  even  for  that  age. 
The  report  makes  unpleasant  reading,  but  it  should 
be  read,  that  we  may  the  better  measure  the  wide 
stretch  that  religion  had  yet  to  compass  ere  it  could 
perfect  itself  in  sympathy  and  tenderness.  David 
had  captured  Rabbah,  the  Ammonite  capital,  and  here 
is  the  account  of  what  he  did  with  the  inhabitants : 
"He  brought  forth  the  people  that  were  therein,  and 
put  them  under  saws,  and  under  harrows  of  iron,  and 
made  them  pass  through  the  brick-kiln ;  and  thus  did 
he  unto  all  the  cities  of  the  children  of  Ammon.'* 

How  far  we  are,  here,  from  the  teaching :  "  Love 
your  enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you,  and  do  good 
to  them  who  despitefully  use  you "  !  how  far  even 
from  the  proverb : 

"  Let  not  kindness  and  truth  forsake  thee ; 
Bind  them  about  thy  neck, 
Write  them  upon  the  tablet  of  thy  heart  I  " 

Solomon  inherited  a  kingdom  and  peace,  for  his 
father  had  conquered  both  and  had  so  ruthlessly 
treated  the  vanquished  that  they  could  scarcely  lift 
their  heads  again.  He  set  himself,  therefore,  to  build 
a  city  and  to  gather  about  him  the  luxuries  of  the 
East.  Still,  his  was  a  petty  kingdom  compared  with 
the  great  powers  on  either  side,  and  it  is  very  certain 
that  the  splendors  of  his  court  never  were  anything 


48        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

like  what  the  descriptions  would  have  us  think.  He 
has  been  called  "  the  wisest  man  that  ever  lived,"  but 
of  the  justice  of  such  a  characterization  there  is  no 
evidence.  It  is  unlikely  that  he  ever  busied  himself 
in  literary  pursuits,  and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  that 
any  word  of  the  Bible  is  his.  The  most  conservative 
of  candid  souls  must  be  gratified  by  this  assurance  of 
the  higher  criticism,  beset  as  they  must  always  have 
been  with  the  feeling  that  a  man  with  seven  hundred 
wives  and  three  hundred  concubines  must  be  a  singu- 
larly unsuitable  vehicle  for  the  Holy  Ghost,  even  in 
a  barbaric  age.  It  is  fair  to  say,  however,  that  allow- 
ance must  be  made  for  exaggeration  in  Hebrew 
writers,  even  as  to  the  weaknesses  of  their  heroes. 
They  never  let  a  story  suffer  for  want  of  strength, 
and,  for  the  sake  of  round  numbers,  thought  nothing, 
in  a  case  like  this,  of  throwing  in  half-a-thousand 
women.  They  may  have  said  some  disparaging  things 
of  Solomon  from  a  rankling  dislike  of  his  liberality 
toward  foreigners  and  toward  the  worship  of  foreign 
gods. 

The  enthusiasms  of  war  united  the  people,  partially 
under  Saul,  completely  under  David,  and  the  old  feuds 
slumbered  through  Solomon's  reign,  but  only  to  break 
out  afresh  at  the  news  of  his  death.  The  northern 
portion  of  the  kingdom,  composed  of  the  most  turbu- 


l^he  Historical  Basis  49 

lent  tribes,  revolted.  Thenceforth  the  stream  of 
Hebrew  history  flows  in  separate  channels  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  years,  when  the  Northern  king- 
dom passes  out  of  existence.  These  two  and  a  half 
centuries  form  a  most  eventful  period,  being  marked 
by  invasions  from  the  east,  the  fierce  Assyrians  at  the 
summit  of  their  power  shaking  the  earth  under  their 
tread.  In  various  ways  the  changed  situation  resulted 
in  developing  wonderfully  the  people  of  Israel.  The 
necessities  of  defense  stirred  them  to  a  noble  patriot- 
ism. The  vision  of  the  thinkers  was  widened,  and 
the  perils  of  the  nation  moved  the  prophetic  spirit  to 
a  lofty  seriousness.  The  first  utterances  of  this  age 
of  prophecy  have  not  been  preserved  to  us,  except  in 
uncertain  fragments,  and  the  record  of  the  time  is 
largely  encumbered  with  legend.  But  from  the  first 
quarter  of  the  eighth  century  the  prophets  began  to 
write  out  their  utterances,  and  so  left  a  permanent 
indication  of  the  condition  of  things  in  their  time. 
The  so-called  "  Books  of  Moses  "  were  not  yet  written, 
nor  had  the  historical  books  that  follow  in  our  Bible 
yet  seen  the  light.  Considerable  scraps  of  discon- 
nected tradition  —  war-songs,  myths,  legends,  law- 
codes  —  had  probably  long  been  in  circulation,  des- 
tined to  be  finally  embodied  in  those  books,  but  the 
books  themselves  awaited  a  compiler.     This  is  the 


50       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

point  at  which  the  new  criticism  has  reversed  the  old 
theory  as  to  the  relative  age  of  the  writings  as  they 
now  stand  in  the  Bible.  It  was  formerly  taken  for 
granted  that  the  books  were  earliest  written  which 
deal  with  the  earliest  times :  a  conclusion  which  no 
more  follows  in  the  case  of  Hebrew  than  in  the  case 
of  English  books.  We  might  as  well  suppose  that, 
since  Tennyson's  Idyls  treat  of  King  Arthur,  while 
Hume's  History  treats  of  James  and  Charles  and  later 
rulers,  therefore  the  Idyls  must  have  been  written 
before  Hume. 

Upon  the  division  of  the  people  after  the  death  of 
Solomon,  numerous  kings  more  or  less  barbarian 
followed  one  another  in  rapid  succession  on  the  throne 
of  the  Northern  kingdom.  Some  of  these  fell  into 
the  ways  of  Solomon  and  encouraged  the  worship 
of  foreign  gods.  The  ease  with  which  this  lapse  from 
Yahw^-service  took  place  will  be  understood  when  we 
remember  that,  previous  to  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century,  nobody  in  Israel  disputed  the  actual  existence 
of  these  other  gods ;  they  were  admittedly  as  real  as 
Yahw^  himself.  There  was  no  such  belief  as  mono- 
theism ;  the  sole  contention  of  the  first  prophets  was 
for  the  practice  of  monolatry ;  they  said  each  people 
ought  to  serve  its  own  god,  and  serve  but  one. 
Hebrews  ought  to  worship  Yah  we  only.     To  this  it 


'The  Historical  Basis  51 

would  seem  that  the  ten  tribes  to  the  north  were,  in 
the  beginning  of  their  separate  existence,  more  inclined 
than  were  the  people  of  Judah,  for  from  the  north 
came  the  first  indignant  protest  against  the  service  of 
other  gods  than  Yahwe.  Elijah  and  Elisha  are  the 
names  with  which  it  is  associated.  These  men  wrote 
no  books ;  they  contented  themselves  with  **  smiting 
the  land  with  the  rod  of  their  mouth."  Not  being 
sketched  by  contemporaries,  they  are  enveloped  to  us 
in  tales  of  marvel,  and  we  see  them  but  dimly ;  but 
we  see  enough  to  know  that  they  stood  out  stoutly 
for  the  exclusive  worship  of  Yahw^.  They  are  repre- 
sentatives of  the  national  religion  at  its  best  in  their 
time.  They  freely  admitted  that  there  were  other 
gods  besides  Yahwe,  just  as  real  as  he,  but  they  were 
not  the  gods  for  Israel  to  serve.  These  men  were 
fierce  often,  and  cruel,  after  the  spirit  of  their  time, 
yet  not  without  their  noble  points  of  character. 
Elijah  attained  an  extraordinary  renown,  and  has 
remained  a  conspicuous,  half-mythical  personage  to 
the  present  time.  The  legend  has  it  that  he  went  off 
to  heaven  in  a  chariot  of  fire ;  and  the  superstition 
has  been  current  among  the  Jews  these  thousands  of 
years  that  he  now  and  then  comes  back  again.  A 
single  incident  may  be  taken  as  showing  the  type  of 
man  he  was.     It  is  said  that  he  proposed  a  miracle- 


52       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

test  with  the  prophets  of  Baal,  to  see  which  was  the 
mightier  god,  Baal  or  Yahwe.  Having  got  together 
four  hundred  and  fifty  Baal-partisans,  he  challenged 
them  to  bring  down  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  a 
sacrifice ;  and  when  they  couldn't  do  it,  taunted  them 
with  their  failure  in  a  sufficiently  brutal  manner,  and, 
according  to  the  story,  did  it  himself.  He  then  took 
the  unhappy  four  hundred  and  fifty  priests  aside  and 
slew  them  all.  This  was  almost  two  hundred  years 
after  Samuel  "hewed  Agag  to  pieces  before  Yahw^," 
and  improvement  here  is  not  marked.  * 

It  was  not  long,  however,  before  a  fairer  spirit  was 
developed.  The  discipline  of  those  trying  years  told 
upon  the  Hebrew  mind  and  character,  and  in  the  next 
century  after  Elijah  the  fruits  began  to  be  seen.  It 
was  then  that  Amos,  followed  soon  by  Hosea,  and  a 
little  later  by  Isaiah  and  Micah,  heralded  the  arrival 
of  higher  ideals  and  led  in  the  classic  period  of 
Hebrew  literature.  Scribes  began  to  be  trained,  who 
gathered  together,  with  emendation,  the  fragmentary 
writings  —  legal  regulations,  royal  records,  traditions, 
myths,  and  legends  —  which  had  long  been  slowly 
accumulating,  into  what,  through  further  extensions, 


*  The  account  is  in  I.  Kings  i8  :  17-40.  It  seems  to  have  a  basis 
of  fact,  though  there  may  be  exaggeration  as  to  the  number  of  the 
victims. 


'The  Historical  Basis  t^i^ 

grew  finally  into  the  books  known  to  us  as  Genesis, 
Exodus,  Numbers,  Joshua,  Samuel,  and  Kings.  A 
developing  literary  sense  made  imperative  the  knitting 
together  of  this  various  material  in  some  connected 
form.  These  narratives,  notwithstanding  their  several 
redactions  by  different  hands,  no  doubt  still  retain 
much  of  their  original  character. 

We  have  reached  now  a  period  of  which  we  have 
some  authentic  account  from  men  who  lived  in  the 
time  of  which  they  wrote,  and  henceforward  there  is 
better  agreement  among  students  as  to  the  general 
course  of  Jewish  history.  As  to  the  preceding  cent- 
uries here  hastily  sketched,  much  is  necessarily  matter 
of  inference ;  but  from  traditions  which  bear  all  the 
marks  of  validity,  and  from  monumental  inscriptions, 
the  indications  here  gathered,  culled  almost  at  random 
from  a  multitude  that  point  in  the  same  way,  abun- 
dantly authorize  the  reconsideration  being  made  in  our 
day  of  the  whole  question  touching  the  date,  author- 
ship, and  purpose  of  the  Old  Testament  books. 

This  cursory  statement  of  the  ground  taken  by  the 
new  school  of  criticism  has  seemed  necessary,  to  make 
intelligible  the  more  specific  application  of  its  princi- 
ples which  will  be  made  in  the  following  chapters. 
At  the  very  foundation,  it  will  be  observed,  the  doc- 
trine is  involved  that  the  Hebrew  literature  was  an 


54       'J'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

evolution  and  not  a  miracle.  It  would  seem  that  even 
in  the  absence  of  evidence  this  idea  ought  to  commend 
itself  to  every  reasonable  mind.  But  the  evidence  in 
support  of  it  is  of  the  strongest.  If  we  begin  by 
admitting  the  old  view  of  the  relative  age  of  the 
books,  facts  remain,  recorded  in  the  books  themselves, 
which  still  show  improvement  of  religious  thought  and 
practice  through  the  early  centuries  of  Jewish  history. 
The  course  of  Joshua,  of  Samuel,  and  of  Saul,  toward 
the  Canaanites,  the  atrocities  of  David,  the  more  than 
Mormon  or  Mohammedan  polygamy  of  Solomon,  con- 
trast so  violently  with  the  gentleness  and  purity  of 
Amos,  of  Jeremiah,  of  Ezekiel,  that  we  instinctively 
revolt  at  any  classification  which  sets  all  these  men  in 
one  and  the  same  category.  If,  then,  a  moral  and 
religious  progress  appears  in  the  records  whose 
authors  had  no  idea  of  such  progress,  who  labored 
under  the  impression  that  the  golden  age  was  behind 
them,  progress  may  assuredly  be  taken  as  an  estab- 
lished fact.  But,  this  fact  once  established,  the  old 
theory  respecting  the  age  of  the  several  Bible  books 
becomes  untenable.  It  will  not  do  any  longer  to  place 
the  composition  of  an  elaborated  system  of  divine 
service  hke  Leviticus,  or  a  highly  spiritual  presenta- 
tion of  the  moral  law  like  Deuteronomy,  at  the  begin- 
ning.    These   books  could   have  been  written,  and 


The  Historical  Basis  55 

could  have  been  of  use,  only  after  the  spirit  and  the 
modes  of  the  spirit  had  acquired  large  development. 

And  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  strongest 
possible  presumption  is  on  the  side  of  the  view  here 
presented ;  that,  therefore,  the  field  is  ours  until 
positive  evidence  is  brought  substantiating  the  old 
teaching.  No  such  evidence  ever  has  been  adduced. 
That  Moses  did  not  write  the  Pentateuch,  Kuenen 
established  thirty-five  years  ago,  as  well  as  a  negative 
can  be  established.  Add  to  this  the  fatal  fact  that  no 
shred  of  proof  is  to  be  found  that  he  did  write  it,  and 
the  present  situation  of  the  claim  for  Mosaic  author- 
ship is  seen.  All  we  can  say  is  that,  in  an  uncritical 
age,  such  an  authorship  was  simply  assumed,  for  a 
purpose  that  will  be  made  apparent  later  on,  and  that 
it  has  since  been  perpetuated  by  tradition.  Before  a 
scientific  study  of  history  and  a  just  criticism,  this 
unsupported  assumption  falls  to  the  ground ;  and  with 
it  must  go  the  whole  conception  of  a  thoroughly 
developed  system  of  religion  having  been  given  out- 
right to  a  primitive  people.  The  notion  that  the 
Hebrews  in  their  early  history  were  monot heists, 
having  a  pure  and  exalted  worship,  is  akin  to  the 
fallacy  that  the  wild  North  American  Indian  holds 
allegiance  to  one  sole  Great  Spirit.  As  has  been 
truly  said  of  our  Indians,  so  we  may  say  of  the  Israel- 


56       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ites  of  the  time  of  their  migration  to  Canaan  and  for 
centuries  afterward  :  their  religion  was  little  more 
than  a  form  of  demonology.  They  believed  in  the 
existence  of  all  the  gods  they  ever  heard  of,  and  all 
were  blood-thirsty,  treacherous,  and  terrible.  Their 
preference  for  Yahw6  lay  in  the  fancy  that  he,  while 
the  most  terrible  of  all,  was  pledged  to  favor  Israel. 
It  was  a  long  step  from  this  to  the  ethico-spiritual 
conceptions  of  Isaiah,  and  we  need  not  wonder  at 
the  length  of  time  spent  in  taking  it. 


CHAPTER    II. 
The  Development  of  Prophecy. 

Civilization  and  religion  of  slow  growth  —  A  literature  presupposes 
long  stages  of  progress  —  First  Hebrew  writings  adaptations  of 
Babylonian  myths  and  legends  —  Distorted  conceptions  of  a  far 
past  —  Definite  history  begins  with  the  age  of  prophecy  —  The 
prophetic  afflatus  —  True  and  false  prophets  —  Pioneer  reform- 
ers—  Work  of  Elijah  —  Contention  for  the  worship  of  Yahwe 
only  —  Existence  of  other  gods  not  questioned  —  Burnt  offer- 
ings —  Children  devoted  to  the  flames  —  Continued  low  moral 
state  —  Marked  advance  made  by  Amos  —  Hosea  denounces 
the  worship  of  Yahw^  under  the  form  of  a  bull  —  Micah  —  Gain 
of  prophecy  from  Samuel  to  Isaiah. 

IT  has  become  a  truism  with  well-informed  people 
that  every  excellent  thing  is  a  product  of  long 
stages  of  development.  Nations  come  to  greatness 
only  step  by  step,  and  the  world  is  astonished  when 
in  any  case  the  steps  are  other  than  exceeding  slow. 
Civilization  and  religion  rise  out  of  the  primitive 
savagery  through  age  -  long  ascending  gradations. 
Lapses  there  will  be,  but  that  changes  nothing  of  the 
fact  that  the  good  is  nowhere  reached  at  a  bound. 
This  is  the  ever-recurring  lesson  of  history.  There 
is  the  strongest  presumption,  therefore,  that  the  true 


58       T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

story  of  Israel  cannot  fail  to  teach  the  same  lesson. 
In  the  absence  of  complete  proof  to  the  contrary  it  is 
fair  to  assume  that  the  Hebrews  began  their  career 
in  a  low  state  of  barbarism,  just  as  did  the  English, 
the  French,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  every  other 
ancient  and  modem  people.  On  this  fair  supposition 
the  history  of  Israel  down  to  the  time  of  written 
prophecy  has  been  hastily  sketched  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  guided,  in  the  absence  of  veritable  history, 
by  such  indications  bearing  on  the  subject  as  are 
available.  These  indications,  many  and  various, 
strongly  support  the  assumption,  in  itself  reasonable, 
that  this  nation  arose  in  the  process  of  the  centuries 
from  a  wild  tribe  of  the  desert ;  that  the  noble  religion 
finally  attained  was  arrived  at  by  slow  degrees,  the 
starting-point  being  that  low  level  in  which  every 
religion  has  its  earliest  root. 

Now,  while  the  development  of  a  great  literature 
does  not  usually  keep  even  pace  with  the  advance- 
ment of  a  people  in  civilization  and  in  religion,  show- 
ing surprising  outbursts  of  brilliancy  at  particular 
epochs,  it  yet  does  come,  though  less  definitely,  under 
the  same  rule.  A  crude  and  barbarous  people  are  not 
given  to  writing  books.  And  it  is  very  apparent  from 
their  own  traditions  that  the  Israelites  on  their  advent 
into  Canaan,  and  for   long  after,  were  barbarians. 


'The  Development  of  Prophecy  59 

Such  attempts  at  writing  as  they  made  in  those  days 
could  have  been  but  reflections  and  adaptations  from 
the  Babylonian  literature  then  current  all  over  hither 
Asia.  Some  of  these  earliest  Hebrew  documents  were 
incorporated  into  the  Pentateuch  later  on,  and,  as  they 
were  in  the  first  place  derived  largely  from  Babylonian 
sources,  their  statements  are  now  occasionally  being 
confirmed  by  freshly  excavated  Babylonian  inscrip- 
tions. We  cannot  be  too  glad  that  the  Hebrews 
borrowed  as  they  did  from  the  older  and  mightier 
people  ;  but  the  borrowing,  so  far  as  it  went,  of 
course  detracts  from  the  originality  of  these  writ- 
ings. They  are  not  distinctively  and  absolutely  He- 
brew literature.  In  fact  there  is  very  little  clearly 
to  be  called  such  that  can  be  shown  to  be  of  earlier 
date  than  800  b.  c.  About  that  time  —  perhaps  a 
little  before  —  some  efforts  were  made  to  gather  up 
the  floating  traditions,  oral  and  written,  relating  to 
early  times,  and  to  mould  them  into  a  connected 
narrative.  As  hardly  needs  to  be  said,  the  work  was 
not  done  scientifically.  The  editors,  or  historians,  if 
we  may  so  call  them,  had  no  idea  of  tracing,  as  would 
a  modern  writer,  the  development  of  customs,  institu- 
tions, forms  of  government  and  of  religion.  Their 
stock  of  historical  material  consisted  of  such  Babylon- 
ian records  of  far-anterior  time  as  were  at  hand  and 


6o       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

as  could  be  worked  into  their  scheme  of  a  history, 
centrally  Hebraic,  and  of  traditions  and  tales  more  or 
less  legendary,  which  had  been  preserved  in  one  way 
and  another  by  their  own  people  several  hundred, 
some  of  them  possibly  a  thousand,  years.  With  their 
age  these  stories  of  the  fathers  had  grown  in  marvel- 
ousness,  and  so  the  impression  was  created  that  in  the 
early  time  Yahw^  had  manifested  himself  much  more 
freely  in  behalf  of  his  people.  Thus  the  old  time  • 
came  to  be  thought  the  best  time,  the  time  when 
Heaven  and  Earth  were  in  close  communion  ;  and  in 
after  centuries  it  became  a  great  point  with  the  writers 
of  the  legal  and  historical  books  to  make  the  highly 
developed  post -exilic  religion  date  from  the  very 
beginnings  of  the  Hebrew  race.  From  their  stand- 
point this  was  a  natural  enough  intention,  but,  as  it 
was  in  violation  of  the  philosophy  of  history,  it  was 
bound  ultimately  to  frustrate  itself.  As  plainly  appears 
now,  the  traditions,  many  of  them,  do  not  at  all  fit 
into  such  a  scheme ;  on  the  contrary,  they  serve  to 
discredit  the  theory  of  these  writers  and  help  us  to 
rectify  their  representation.  We  find  enough  authentic 
recollections  recorded  to  show  that  the  Hebrews  were 
uncivilized  on  their  first  appearance  in  history ;  that 
they  were  then  fetish-worshipers ;  afterwards  fire- 
worshipers  ;  that  they  believed  in  many  gods  of  whom 


The  Development  of  Prophecy  6i 

Yahwe  was  chief,  or  at  least  the  one  they  could  best 
depend  on ;  that  they  worshiped  him  under  the  form 
of  a  bull ;  that  the  custom  was  long  prevalent  among 
them  of  offering  human  sacrifices.  The  writers  have 
woven  into  their  own  record  facts  which  prove  their 
theory  of  history  a  mistaken  one,  and  make  it  plain 
that  they  carried  back  into  the  age  of  Moses  ideas 
and  institutions  which  belong  to  an  age  some  six 
hundred  years  later. 

This  being  the  case,  it  is  in  order  now  to  consider 
the  condition  of  Israel  in  the  eighth  century  b.  c,  the 
time  of  the  first  prophets  whose  words  we  have  under 
their  own  hands.  For  this  purpose  we  have  reliable 
data  in  the  writings  of  the  prophets  themselves,  and 
in  the  historical  books  written  during  this  period. 

The  prophetic  age,  it  is  to  be  observed,  was  subse- 
quent to  the  disruption  of  the  kingdom  after  Solomon. 
For,  though  Moses  is  loosely  called  a  prophet,  and 
seers  and  soothsayers  had  never  been  wanting,  one 
and  all  were  without  the  quality  of  inspiration  which 
distinguished  the  true  Hebrew  prophet  of  history. 
The  ancients  all  had  their  oracles  of  more  or  less 
repute,  as  have  many  moderns,  —  augurs,  fortune- 
tellers, diviners,  medicine-men,  mediums,  clairvoyants, 
as  they  are  variously  termed,  —  to  whom  the  people 
resorted  for  light  on  dark  questions.     Down  to  the 


62       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

time  of  Samuel,  we  are  told,  these  persons  were  called 
seers.  They  might  fitly  have  worn  the  name  longer. 
In  after  centuries  men  of  higher  type  arose,  and  the 
nobler  title  of  prophet  suited  the  advance  made  from 
vulgar  soothsaying  to  wise  leadership  of  the  people 
and  the  counseling  of  kings.  This  advance  we  may 
be  sure  was  slow ;  the  seers  of  the  eleventh,  and  the 
prophets  of  the  tenth  and  ninth  centuries  b.  c,  were 
unavoidably  superstitious,  sometimes  bloody  -  handed 
men.  We  find  in  Samuel,  who  belongs,  it  is  true,  to 
the  class  of  seers  or  clairvoyants,  small  traces  of  that 
high  moral  quality  which  draws  us  to  the  great  proph- 
ets of  the  eighth  century.  His  associates  and  suc- 
cessors, for  a  hundred  years  and  more,  were  of  the 
class  of  diviners  and  fortune-tellers  who  belong  to 
every  age,  given  to  dreams  and  trances.  Their 
prophesying  was  a  form  of  religious  frenzy  such  as  is 
seen  in  the  modern  dervishes  ;  they  believed  them- 
selves seized  by  the  spirit  of  God,  which  compelled 
them  to  prophesy.  "  The  spirit  of  God  "  in  this  con- 
nection means  simply  (in  the  words  of  Canon  Cheyne), 
"  a  fanatical  impulse  to  do  honor  to  Yahw^  by  putting 
aside  all  the  restraints  of  civil  life  and  social  custom, 
and  acting  like  a  madman  till  physical  exhaustion 
brings  the  fit  of  frenzy  to  an  end."  While  these 
dervish-like  features  were  never  wholly  abandoned  by 


The  Development  of  Prophecy  6^, 

the  prophets  even  in  their  best  days,  they  were  ulti- 
mately toned  down  and  subordinated  to  other  consid- 
erations. But  improvement  was  slow.  The  people 
mostly  preferred  the  old  style  of  prophet  with  his 
contortions,  his  paroxysms  of  "  possession,'*  which 
seemed  conclusively  to  show  that  some  supernatural 
afflatus  had  swept  over  him ;  and  so  this  sort  were 
ever  the  more  numerous,  the  orthodox  party.  They 
prophesied  to  please  the  king  or  whoever  it  might  be 
that  inquired  of  them ;  did  their  work  for  pay ;  served 
their  own  interests.  They  upbraided  nobody,  prom- 
ised success,  preached  optimism  with  every  breath. 
But  as  time  went  on  and  troubles  came,  here  and 
there  a  man  of  firm  conviction  and  real  consecration 
arose  who  looked  not  to  his  own  interests,  cared  only 
for  his  people,  would  not  prophesy  smooth  things  to 
please  them,  and  saw  in  their  misfortunes  only  the 
just  punishment  for  their  sins.  When  such  a  one 
happened  also  to  be  endowed  with  great  abilities  he 
forced  himself  into  consideration,  made  his  mark  upon 
his  age. 

But  prophecy  as  it  rose  in  dignity  and  value  became 
pessimistic.  The  voices  of  the  men  of  God  flamed 
in  condemnation  of  what  they  saw  about  them. 
Nathan  could  boldly  venture  to  rebuke  King  David 
for  some  of  his  shameful  actions ;  Ahijah,  shocked  by 


64       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Solomon's  tolerance  of  heathen  worship  in  Jerusalem, 
appears  to  have  instigated  the  rebellion  of  the  North- 
em  tribes,  and  prompted  among  them  a  more  exclusive 
devotion  to  Yahw^.  Jeroboam,  we  know,  built  up  the 
sacred  places  there,  and  established  two  temples  for 
the  greater  convenience  of  the  people  dwelling  at 
either  extremity  of  his  kingdom.  In  each  of  these 
he  placed  the  gilded  image  of  a  bull,  representing 
Yahw^,  a  sort  of  imagery  which  had  always  been 
more  or  less  in  vogue  among  the  Israelites,  and  which 
thus  far,  it  would  seem,  had  aroused  no  protest.  One 
wonders  what  those  pioneer  reformers,  Elijah  and 
Elisha,  who  lived  in  this  time,  thought  of  this  bull- 
worship.  They  seem  not  to  have  been  offended  by 
it ;  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  said  anything 
against  it.  Their  war  was  against  other  gods  and  the 
images  of  other  gods  ;  they  made  no  fight  against 
images  of  Yahwe.  We  may  therefore  conclude  that 
these  prophets  saw  nothing  reprehensible  in  worship- 
ing Yahw^  under  the  form  of  a  bull.  Accustomed  to 
it  from  childhood,  it  probably  never  struck  them  as 
other  than  the  proper  thing.  Obviously  they  knew 
nothing  of  any  prohibitory  commandment  regarding 
graven  images. 

These  two  prophets  are  not  to  be  thought  of  as  the 
only  ones  of  their  time.     We  have  an  account  of  four 


"The  Development  of  Prophecy  (^c^ 

hundred  being  called  in  those  very  days  to  the  court 
of  the  king  of  Israel  to  pronounce  oracularly  on  the 
expediency  of  a  war.  They  were  of  the  short-sighted, 
smooth-speaking  party,  which  appears  to  have  out- 
numbered the  higher  order  through  all  the  period  of 
prophecy  ;  and  of  course  they  warmly  encouraged  the 
king  in  the  enterprise  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart. 
Only  one  man  could  anywhere  be  found  with  courage 
to  voice  an  opposing  oracle ;  but  that  one  man  of  the 
better  vision  left  his  name  on  record,  which  is  more 
than  can  be  said  of  any  one  of  the  four  hundred 
(I.  Kings  22  :  5-17). 

Of  the  two  conspicuous  characters  who  really 
enunciated  a  scheme  of  reform  and  set  prophetism 
on  its  great  career,  it  is  necessary  to  speak  more  par- 
ticularly. We  cannot  be  very  precise,  because  they 
wrote  no  books,  *  and  because  the  record  of  their 
doings  was  made  a  century  or  so  after  their  death, 
and  consequently  is  confused  with  much  that  is 
legendary.  Of  these  legendary  stories  —  the  prophet's 
power  to  bring  or  withhold  rain,  his  being  fed  by 
ravens,  the  miraculous  renewing  of  the  widow's  meal 
and  oil,  the  calling  back  to  life  of  her  dead  son,  the 


*  The  only  biblical  claim  that  Elijah  wrote  anything  is  in  II.  Chron- 
icles 21  :  12-15,  and  this  appeared  some  six  hundred  years  after  his 
time. 


66       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

feast  spread  by  an  angel  for  the  starving  man  of  God, 
and  other  marvels  connected  with  him  —  it  is  just  to 
say,  they  are  such  as  attach  themselves  only  to  great 
religious  leaders,  and,  though  beyond  belief  to  the 
modern  mind,  are  to  be  taken  as  the  tribute  of  a 
subsequent  generation  seeking  to  atone  for  neglect 
of  an  extraordinary  personality.  Similar  testimony 
was  put  on  record  regarding  Moses,  and,  much 
later,  in  the  case  of  Jesus.  Through  the  fictitious 
halo,  some  traces  of  the  real  person  may  be  caught. 
Thus,  in  the  story  of  the  annihilation  by  fire  from 
heaven  of  two  companies  of  soldiers  sent  to  arrest 
Elijah,  we  have  what  appears  to  be  a  true  por- 
trait of  him,  as  a  stern  ascetic  wrapped  in  a  robe 
of  goat's  or  camel's  hair,  gathered  at  the  waist  by  a 
strap  (II.  Kings  i  :  8-12).  We  also  make  out  clearly 
from  the  record  what  was  the  main  motive  of  his 
preaching,  —  it  was  to  extirpate  in  Israel  the  worship 
of  any  other  god  than  Yahwe.  One  might  think  that 
five  hundred  years  after  Moses  this  ought  not  to  be  a 
formidable  task,  but  such  a  notion  does  not  take  into 
account  the  tremendous  influence  of  a  surrounding 
civilization  in  most  respects  decidedly  superior  to  that 
of  the  Israelites.  In  the  whole  mass  of  his  people 
Elijah  calculated  there  were  not  more  than  seven 
thousand  who  worshiped  only  Yahwe ;  the  rest  bowed 


The  Development  of  Prophecy  67 

the  knee  to  Baal  or  some  other  foreign  god.  For 
these  apostates,  who  made  up  almost  the  entire  nation, 
he  saw  nothing  but  destruction.  Accordingly,  in  dis- 
astrous wars,  in  pestilence  and  famine,  decimating  the 
people,  there  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  hand  of  Yahw^ 
avenging  the  neglect  of  his  altar.  He  hears  the  voice 
of  Yahw^  commanding  him  to  go  to  Damascus  and 
anoint  Hazael,  the  fiercest  enemy  of  Israel,  to  be  king 
of  Syria,  and  then  to  anoint  the  terrible  Jehu  to 
be  king  of  Israel,  that  between  the  two  a  general 
slaughter  might  be  made,  to  be  supplemented,  if  need 
be,  by  the  hand  of  his  associate,  Elisha;  for,  says 
Yahwe,  "  It  shall  come  to  pass  that  him  who  escapeth 
from  the  sword  of  Hazael  shall  Jehu  slay,  and  him 
who  escapeth  from  the  sword  of  Jehu  shall  Elisha  slay. 
There  shall  only  be  left  the  seven  thousand  who  have 
not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal."  When  Ahab  on  politi- 
cal grounds  had  formed  an  alliance  with  Tyre,  as  an 
act  of  courtesy  he  permitted  the  Tyrians  resident  in 
his  capital  to  have  a  temple  there,  dedicated  to  Baal ; 
an  act  which  furiously  aroused  the  indignation  of 
Elijah.  It  happened  that  an  uncommon  drouth  fol- 
lowed the  building  of  this  temple  (the  occurrence  of 
the  drouth  is  independently  attested  in  a  fragment  of 
Menander  of  Ephesus,  quoted  by  Josephus),  and  the 
tradition  has  it  that  Elijah  foretold  it,  and  indeed 


68       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

brought  it  on  in  punishment  of  this  recognition  of 
a  foreign  god.  The  substratum  of  truth  doubtless  is, 
Elijah  interpreted  the  drouth  as  a  sign  of  the  divine 
displeasure. 

Modern  critics  are  not  disposed  to  think  tjiat 
Yahw^-worship  in  the  ninth  century  was  reduced  so 
low  as  to  have  only  seven  thousand  adherents  out  of  a 
population  of  some  millions  ;  and  certainly  there  was 
never  a  slaughter  that  swept  away  all  but  this  rem- 
nant. Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  think  that,  in  the 
disasters  which  came,  the  minority  of  the  faithful 
fared  any  better  than  the  rest.  What  did  happen  as 
a  result  of  Elijah's  preaching  was  a  deepening  of  the 
national  religious  consciousness,  a  great  strengthen- 
ing of  Yahw^-worship  as  the  one  fitting .  cult  of 
Israel,  and  an  ineffaceable  revelation  at  the  oppor- 
tune monient  of  an  ideal  of  prophecy  high  and  heroic 
for  that  age. 

Elisha,  the  associate  and  successor  of  Elijah,  is  a 
less  striking  because  a  much  less  original  figure.  His 
history  is  involved  in  a  similar  circle  of  myth  and 
marvel,  from  which  he  nowhere  stands  out  as  clearly 
as  does  at  times  his  greater  master.  Still,  to  judge 
from  the  half-legendary  account,  he  filled  for  many 
years  an  important  place  in  public  affairs,  during  a 
troublesome  period,  maintaining  fairly  well  the  dignity 


'The  Development  of  Prophecy  69 

of  the  office  of  chief  prophet  created  by  EHjah.  He 
kept  up  the  contention  for  the  exclusive  worship  of 
Yahw^,  though  apparently  with  somewhat  less  rigor 
and  vigor.  There  was  certainly  no  advance  on  the 
other's  position;  no  exception  taken  to  the  use  of 
images ;  no  declaration  of  monotheism.  No  voice  had 
yet  ventured  to  say :  There  is  one  God  and  only  one. 
It  was  universally  held  by  the  prophets,  and  always 
had  been  held,  that  the  gods  of  other  nations  were 
actual  persons,  rivals  of  Yahw^ ;  and  the  utmost 
advance  that  had  been  made  was  to  assert  that  Yahw^ 
was  jealous  of  them,  that  he  was  the  patron  god  of 
the  Hebrews,  and  that  therefore  they  ought  to  worship 
him  alone.  Some,  feeling  that  he  was  more  righteous 
than  Baal  and  the  rest,  more  a  lover  of  justice  and 
kindness  and  truth,  may  have  arisen,  but  such  a  feel- 
ing did  not  much  come  to  expression.  Nobody 
dreamed  of  pretending,  either  that  "  Baal "  and 
**  Chemosh  "  and  "  Zeus  "  were  names  of  mere  fictions 
of  the  imagination,  or  that  they,  with  "  Yahwe,"  were 
simply  different  names  for  the  same  Being ;  they  were 
universally  believed  to  be  names  of  diverse  and  dis- 
tinct personalities.  Solomon,  when  he  built  his  temple 
to  Yahw^,  had  generously  provided  for  the  worship  of 
all  the  gods  known  to  the  people  of  Jerusalem  ;  and, 
though  he  may  have  carried  his  liberality  to  a  rather 


70       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

extreme  degree,  he  seems  at  the  time  not  to  have  been 
severely  censured.  We  know  of  the  subsequent  kings 
that  several  were  worshipers  of  foreign  gods,  one  of 
them,  Ahaz,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighth  century, 
going  so  far  as  to  sacrifice  his  own  child  to  Molech 
("made  his  son  to  pass  through  the  fire,  according  to 
the  abominations  of  the  heathen  "*),  an  example  fol- 
lowed by  his  grandson  Manasseh  forty -four  years 
later,  t  Such  hideous  things  in  high  places  make  it 
pretty  certain  that  the  people  generally  were  doing  no 
better.  Not  that  the  worship  of  Yahw^,  at  any  time 
during  these  centuries,  was  given  up ;  his  worship  was 
continued  along  with  that  of  other  gods.  Even  where 
in  response  to  the  demands  of  the  early  prophets  the 
service  of  other  gods  was  excluded,  it  was  not  on  the 
ground  of  their  non-existence,  but  on  the  ground  that, 
since  Yahw^  was  Israel's  God,  Israel  ought  to  serve 
him,  just  as  every  nation  ought  to  serve  its  own  deity. 
Thus  when  the  king  of  the  Amorites  asked  for  the 
recession  of  a  certain  territory  which  Israel  had  con- 
quered in  the  early  wars,  it  was  argued  that  the  land 
should  not  be  given  up,  because  in  the  old  time  Yahw^ 
had  fairly  wrested  it  from  Chemosh.     This  is  the 


*  II.  Kings  i6:  3. 

t  II.  Kings  21 :  6.    On  meaning  of  "to  pass  through  the  fire," see 
Ezek.  i6:  20,  21. 


^he  Development  of  Prophecy  71 

argument,  which,  though  one-sided,  shows  how  the 
people  regarded  the  gods  of  other  nations  :  "  The 
God  of  Israel  dispossessed  the  Amorites  of  this  land, 
and  gave  it  to  his  people  Israel.  Wilt  thou  not 
possess  what  Chemosh,  thy  god,  giveth  thee  to 
possess  ?  So  whomsoever  Yahw^  drives  out  before 
us,  them  will  we  possess  "  (Judges  11:  23,  24).  This 
is  an  incident  of  the  period  of  the  Judges,  but  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  similar  notions  of  the 
reality  of  the  various  gods,  and  of  their  relations  to 
their  people,  held  on  to  a  late  day.  We  have  it  related, 
for  example,  that  when  the  kings  of  Israel  and  of 
Judah  marched  together  upon  Moab,  and  were  in  a 
fair  way  to  reduce  the  capital  of  that  heathen  land, 
the  king  of  Moab  in  his  extremity  sacrificed  his 
son  and  heir  to  Chemosh ;  whereupon  the  might 
of  that  god  was  revealed,  and  the  combined  forces 
of  Israel  and  Judah,  though  accompanied  by  the 
prophet  Elisha  who  wrought  the  most  stupendous 
miracles,  were  forced  to  raise  the  siege  (11.  Kings 
3 :  27). 

While  the  foreign  gods  were  felt  to  be  so  real  and 
so  powerful  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  were  more  or 
less  worshiped.  Another  fact  also  goes  far  to  explain 
a  persistent  inclination  of  the  people  in  that  direction  : 
the  ceremonies  which  came  to  be  considered  heathen- 


72        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ish  were,  many  of  them,  originally  associated  with  the 
worship  of  Yahwe.  This  Being  was  early  thought  of 
as  light  and  fircy  a  conception  which  survived  in 
poetry,  furnishing  the  most  striking  symbols.  We 
read  that "  the  glory  of  Yahw^  was  like  devouring  fire 
on  the  top  of  Mount  Sinai "  ;  that  "  his  angel  appeared 
in  a  flame  of  fire  out  of  the  midst  of  a  bush  "  ;  that 
in  the  desert,  for  the  guidance  of  the  Israelites, 
"  Yahw^  went  before  them  in  a  cloud  by  day,  and  by 
night  in  a  pillar  of  fire  "  ;  we  even  find  it  said  with 
explicitness :  "Thy  God  is  a  consuming  fire."  Fig- 
urative as  these  expressions  may  be,  time  was  when 
such  language  was  not  figurative.  In  that  early  time 
worshipers  of  Yahw^  offered  their  children  to  him,  — 
that  is,  to  the  flames.  The  burning  of  sacrifices,  so 
constant  a  feature  of  all  ancient  religions,  points  to  a 
time  when  the  flame  that  received  the  offering  was 
identical  with  the  god  who  was  to  be  propitiated 
thereby.  The  ritual  of  the  Yahw^-cult  early  rejected 
the  custom  of  making  human  sacrifices,  but  the  people 
retained  some  predilection  for  the  fiery  rites,  and, 
when  barred  from  the  celebration  of  the  more  horrible 
of  these  rites  in  the  service  of  their  own  God,  they 
would  sometimes  adopt  for  the  moment  the  ways  of 
their  neighbors.  Down  to  a  late  day,  under  the  name 
of  Molech,  they  perpetuated  in  its  literalness  the  idea 


^he  Development  of  Prophecy  73 

that  God  is  a  devouring  fire.*  We  may  in  a  measure, 
therefore,  understand  why  the  later  prophets  found  it 
necessary  to  combat  so  stoutly  a  practice  which  seemed 
to  hold  on  into  an  age  where  it  did  not  belong.  It 
had  the  persistence  of  an  aboriginal  tendency.  The 
same  consideration  goes  far  to  explain  the,  to  the 
prophets,  exasperating  readiness  of  the  people  to  lapse 
into  the  service  of  other  gods  besides  Molech  — 
Ashera,  Milcom,  Chemosh,  and  the  rest.  These 
orders  of  worship,  however  widely  separated  at  last 
from  Yahwism,  were  originally  of  the  same  family. 
In  the  steady  advance  of  the  latter  into  a  more  ethical, 
spiritual  faith,  many,  who  could  not  follow,  naturally 
fell  into  other  cults  which  remained  relatively  sta- 
tionary. 

We  would  Hke  to  know  more  definitely  the  moral 
condition  of  the  people  toward  the  end  of  the  eighth 
century,  when  prophetism  came  to  full  development ; 
what  part  morality  played  in  their  sense  of  religious 
obligation.  If,  as  many  still  think,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments came  from  the  hand  of  Moses  (exception  at  any 
rate  must  be  made  of  the  Second,  the  prohibition  of 


*  From  what  neighbors  the  Israelites  derived  the  horrid  rite  of 
"passing  their  children  through  the  fire  "no  one  pretends  to  say. 
It  may  have  been  original  with  them.  Dr.  G.  F.  Moore  says :  '*  The 
only  seat  of  this  cult  of  which  we  have  certain  historical  knowledge 
is  Jerusalem."     Compare  Amos  5  :  26. 


74       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

graven  images*),  then  the  religion  of  Israel  took  a 
strong  ethical  cast  from  the  outset.  Moreover  it  is 
certain  that  the  worship  of  Yahw^  was  never  notorious 
for  such  immoralities  as  disgraced  the  temples  of  some 
other  gods  of  the  period.  Still,  though  society  was 
probably  better  regulated  in  Israel  than  elsewhere, 
the  terrific  impeachment  brought  by  the  eighth-century 
prophets  compels  us  to  think  that  public  and  private 
morality  was  generally  low.  The  notion  had  not  yet 
been  developed  of  a  direct  connection  between  faith- 
fulness to  Yahwe  and  faithfulness  to  justice,  truth, 
and  purity. 

Somewhere  about  the  close  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  eighth  century,  Amos,  a  shepherd,  left  the  tending 
of  his  sheep,  under  the  conviction  that  he  had  a 
message  to  his  people  from  Yahw^.  It  came  over 
him,  as  it  had  not  over  any  of  his  predecessors,  that 
Yahw^  was  a  righteous  God,  and  that  righteousness 


*  This  on  the  ground  of  the  unrestricted  use  of  images  of  Yahwe 
for  five  hundred  years  after  Moses.  The  tradition  is  that  through 
Moses  were  given  "  Ten  Words,"  ten  declarations,  and  there  are  ten 
without  this,  counting  as  the  first,  "  I  am  Yahwe,  thy  God,"  etc. 
The  expression,  Ten  Words,  implies  that  these  declarations  were 
very  brief,  most  of  them  doubtless  originally  much  shorter  than  as 
they  now  stand,  certainly  those  touching  the  Sabbath,  reverence  for 
parents,  and  covetousness.  Suspicion  is  at  once  cast  on  the  Second 
by  its  length  —  ninety-three  words  in  the  English  version  —  running 
into  a  regular  exhortation. 


T^he  Development  of  .Prophecy  75 

is  the  one  acceptable  service  of  him.  His  soul  was 
pained  to  see  the  people  punctilious  in  observances 
but  unscrupulous  in  conduct ;  careful  of  the  ritual  but 
careless  of  honor,  of  purity,  and  of  truth.  He  could 
see  nothing  but  destruction  for  a  nation  given  to  such 
ways,  and  he  went  up  and  down  the  country  saying 
so.  Though  apparently  a  native  of  Judah,  he  betook 
himself  to  the  then  more  important  Northern  king- 
dom that  went  by  the  name  of  Israel,  and  denounced 
the  king  in  his  own  sacred  place  of  Bethel.  For  this 
the  chief  priest  procured  his  expulsion  from  the  king- 
dom, but  could  not  bring  him  to  silence.  He  left, 
proclaiming  the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  king  and  the 
deportation  of  his  subjects.  Finding  that  men  would 
not  hear  his  spoken  words,  he  wrote  out  the  main 
points  of  his  prophecy,  thus  becoming  "  the  earliest 
of'  the  prophets  of  whose  discourses  and  predictions 
we  possess  written  records  with  an  accompanying 
statement  of  their  authorship."  It  is  only  a  small 
book  ;  it  would  make  hardly  more  than  three,  columns 
of  one  of  our  daily  newspapers  —  even  less  than  that, 
leaving  out  the  additions  made  by  other  hands,  for, 
like  all  other  ancient  books,  of  which  the  originals 
were  perishable,  it  has  been  at  the  mercy  of  copyists 
and  editors.  But  enough  of  his  genuine  words 
remain  to  prove  him  an  exalted  and  original  spirit, 


76        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

with  the  gift  of  refined  and  forceful  expression. 
Prophecy,  at  the  moment  it  began  to  be  written,  took 
an  upward  flight,  acquired  a  wider  view, 
/In  the  next  generation  arose  a  yet  more  vigorous 
.if  a  less  refined  spirit,  the  prophet  Hosea,  mastered 
by  the  same  convictions,  seeing  the  hollowness  of  tlie 
people's  piety,  the  wickedness  of  their  lives,  and 
pouring  out  against  them  fiery  denunciations.  Like 
Amos,  he  saw  nothing  but  ruin  for  such  a  people, 
they  were  too  far  gone  for  repentance ;  priests, 
prophets,  and  all  were  fit  only  to  be  cast  out.  So 
dark  and  hopeless  was  his  picture,  so  sweeping  his 
declaration  of  impending  divine  vengeance,  that  later 
hands  have  felt  impelled  to  make  additions  pointing 
to  a  final  happy  issue.  The  whole  book  bearing  his 
name  is,  in  bulk,  less  than  four  ordinary  newspaper 
columns.  The  most  of  it,  all  the  threatening,  denun- 
ciatory part,  is  his  ;  the  later  insertions  are  those 
cheerful,  encouraging  verses  preferred  by  modern 
readers.  But  in  the  gloom  of  Hosea  there  is  a 
brilliancy  rarely  matched  in  the  Bible  or  elsewhere. 
Such  a  rapid  and  astonishing  succession  of  pictures, 
vivid  and  appalling,  fairly  takes  one's  breath  away. 
He  is  a  maker  of  epigrammatic  phrases,  some  of 
which,  such  as  "like  people,  like  priest,"  "sow  the 
wind  and  reap  the  whirlwind,"  are  still  in  frequent 


'The  Development  of  Prophecy  77 

use.  In  Hosea  we  come  upon  the  first  condemnation 
of  the  custom  in  vogue  for  centuries  of  representing 
Yahw^  in  the  form  of  an  ox  or  bull,  the  worship  of 
golden  calves.  But  we  must  observe  that  neither 
Amos  nor  Hosea  arrives  at  monotheism  ;  there  are 
still  many  gods  besides  Yahwe ;  Yahwe  is  not  the  God 
and  Maker  of  all  the  world.  Even  Micah,  who  came 
a  little  later  and  companioned  with  Isaiah,  got  no 
further  at  this  point,  for  he  concludes  the  passage 
(assuming  it  to  be  really  his),  descriptive  of  the  days 
when  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
with  the  declaration  that  then  "all  the  peoples  will 
walk  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  god,  and  we  will 
walk  in  the  name  of  Yahwe,  our  god,  for  ever  and 
ever."  Of  Micah  we  know  very  little ;  the  word  he 
has  left  is  of  the  briefest,  and  this  has  been  freely 
tampered  with  by  the  editors  to  soften  down  its  tone 
of  pessimism.  The  real  Micah  had  the  same  abhor- 
rence of  the  existing  situation,  the  hollow  formalities, 
the  worship  of  images,  and  the  prevailing  immorality, 
as  had  his  two  great  predecessors.  As,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  able  critics,  his  genuine  words  do  not  extend 
beyond  the  first  four  chapters,  with  some  late  inser- 
tions even  in  them,  it  is  evident  that  we  have  but  the 
merest  fragment  of  his  utterances.  The  same  is  to 
be  said  of  all  three  of   the  prophets  here  treated; 


78       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

and  it  need  not  disturb  us  that  the  passages  in  these 
precious  remnants  most  to  our  modern  taste  are  fre- 
quently the  very  ones  pronounced  by  the  critics  addi- 
tions by  later  hands.  The  independent  value  of  a 
noble  utterance  is  not  affected  by  the  age  of  it ;  and 
we  gain  nothing  by  attributing  to  the  very  ancient, 
thoughts  beyond  the  reach  of  their  time.  The  great 
paragraph  (6 :  6-8)  closing  with  the  words :  "  What 
doth  Yahwe  require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly  and  to 
love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God } "  loses 
no  whit  of  its  majesty  by  the  admission  that  it  is 
some  hundreds  of  years  younger  than  the  real  sayings 
of  Micah. 

We  are  now  arrived  at  the  time  of  Isaiah,  in  whom 
prophecy  reached  a  very  high  development  and  found 
perhaps  its  greatest  genius.  His  work,  and  that  of 
his  successors  of  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries,  is 
of  such  importance  as  to  require  separate  treatment. 

A  word  only  as  to  the  figure  and  function  to  which 
prophecy  had  now  attained.  Beginning  in  the  sooth- 
saying, the  divining,  the  magic  common  among  all 
primitive  peoples  and  surviving  vulgarly  in  all  civiliza- 
tions, accompanied  often  by  peculiar  nervous  derange- 
ments, convulsions,  catalepsy,  and  so  forth,  it  rose  to 
dignity  in  Israel  by  becoming,  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
really  great  men,  an  enginery  of  moral  and  religious 


The  Development  of  Prophecy  79 

reform.  These  men  inherited  the  conviction  that  the 
seer  is  in  direct  communication  with  Yahwe,  speaks 
as  he  is  directed  by  Yahw^,  and  this  conviction  was 
deepened  in  them  through  the  consecration  of  their 
lives  to  his  service  in  all  purity  and  earnestness.  So 
completely  did  they  hold  themselves  as  the  mere 
vehicles  of  his  controlling  Spirit  that  they  often  rep- 
resent him  as  being  himself  the  speaker.  So  sure 
are  they  that  it  is  Yahw^  speaking,  they  are  not  dis- 
mayed when  their  f orecastings  fail ;  they  simply  infer  ^ 
that  Yahw^,  of  his  supreme  good  pleasure,  has 
changed  his  mind  or  delayed  the  fulfillment.  But 
the  prophets'  and  the  people's  faith  is  so  entire  that 
the  prophetic  word  itself  has  an  inherent  energy  going 
far  to  work  its  own  fulfillment,  actually  bringing  the 
threatened  woes  or  promised  blessings.  We  may 
imagine  the  terror  inspired  by  such  a  word  as  this : 
**  Thus  saith  Yahwe,  God  of  hosts,  *  Is  not  my  word 
as  fire,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in 
pieces.?'"  or  as  this:  "Thus  saith  Yahwe,  God  of 
hosts,  *  I  will  make  my  words  in  thy  mouth  fire,  and 
this  people  wood,  and  it  shall  devour  them.'  "  At  any 
rate,  in  the  hands  of  these  great  men,  foretelling 
became  wholly  subsidiary  to  great  moral  and  religious 
aims.  Their  main  purpose  was  to  turn  the  people 
from  errors  and  sins. 


CHAPTER    III. 
The  Three  Extended  Prophecies. 

Isaiah,  the  son  of  Amoz  —  The  book  bearing  his  name  a  composite 
work  —  Accretions  by  other  hands  in  the  first  half — Principal 
part  of  the  latter  half  added  by  exiles  in  Babylonia — Optimism 
of  this  part — Affirmation  of  monotheism  clearly  made — Three 
minor  prophets  —  Jeremiah  —  The  prophecy  that  goes  by  his 
name  also  a  composite  —  His  mode  of  writing  —  His  denuncia- 
tion of  foreign  gods  —  His  wise  political  counsel,  neglect  of 
which  led  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  —  Ezekiel,  captive 
priest  and  prophet  in  Babylonia —  Sagaciously  exempts  Babylon 
from  his  denunciations,  which  fall  upon  all  other  foreigners  — 
Expects  return  of  captives  to  Palestine  —  Provides  regulations 
for  worship  there — Formulates  an  impracticable  scheme  for 
parceling  out  the  land  to  the  twelve  tribes  —  Order  of  value  of 
the  three  principal  books  of  prophecy. 

WE  are  now  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  great 
monuments  of  Hebrew  literature,  the  book 
of  Isaiah.  No  book  has  ever  been  the  sub- 
ject of  more  painstaking  study,  and  none,  perhaps, 
has  better  rewarded  the  student.  Scholars  of  a 
previous  generation  readily  perceived  that  the  book 
divides  itself  into  two  nearly  equal  parts,  and  they 
ascribed  the  latter  half  to  an  unknown  writer  of  the 
time  of  the  exile  in  Babylonia.     A  few  passages  here 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  8i 

and  there  were  assigned  to  intervening  dates,  the  body 
of  the  first  half  standing  as  the  work  of  Isaiah  the 
son  of  Amoz,  who  prophesied  in  the  last  forty  years 
of  the  eighth  and  the  first  decade  of  the  seventh 
century  b.  c.  But  studies  made  since  1880  have 
materially  changed  our  idea  of  the  situation.  The 
best  scholarship  has  it  now  that  the  whole  work  is  a 
composite,  to  which  many  hands  contributed  through 
a  period  of  more  than  five  hundred  years ;  that  the 
man  whose  name  it  bears  wrote  scattered  prophecies, 
which  were  gathered  up  and  supplemented  by  his 
disciples,  this  nucleus  receiving  emendations  and  in- 
crements from  one  and  another  of  their  successors 
through  the  centuries.  We  have,  therefore,  the  work, 
not  of  one  prophet,  but  of  a  dozen  or  twenty  prophets 
and  editors,  covering  more  topics  from  more  points  of 
view  than  would  have  been  possible  for  one  man. 
L^f  Isaiah  personally  we  know  more  than  of  any 
of  the  preceding  or  contemporary  prophets.  Unlike 
Micah,  unlike  Amos  and  Hosea,  he  was  a  person  of 
rank,  holding  a  high  social  position  in  Jerusalem ;  a 
circumstance  which  afforded  him  a  securer  basis  of 
influence  than  they  possessed.  Of  equal  purity,  fear- 
lessness, and  devotion,  he  had  greater  sagacity,  a 
clearer  vision.  He  was  happily  situated  in  life,  his 
means  apparently  ample,  his  domestic  relations  all  he 


82       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

could  desire,  —  his  wife  a  prophetess,  his  sons  proph- 
ets,—  honored  by  the  people  hardly  less  than  the 
king  himself,  whose  natural  counselor  he  was  as  the 
chief  spokesman  of  Yahwe.  He  lived  in  a  most 
important  and  trying  part  of  the  history  of  the  two 
kingdoms,  exercising  for  fifty  years  the  functions  of 
foremost  prophet.  So  great  and  so  active  a  mind 
must  have  made  many  telling  utterances  in  that  time, 
enough  to  fill  many  volumes.  Of  these  utterances 
he  wrote  out  a  few,  a  few  more  of  them  were  taken 
down  by  his  disciples,  and  in  after  years  some  one 
gathered  what  there  were  into  a  little  collection,  with 
explanatory  introductions  and  connecting  links.  Such 
a  book,  while  regarded  with  reverence  by  the  faithful, 
would  have  none  of  the  inviolable  sanctity  of  a 
"sacred  book,"  and  would  be  open  to  emendation 
from  time  to  time  by  other  prophets  speaking  by  a 
similar  inspiration.  Vaticinations  which  had  conspic- 
uously failed  of  fulfillment  would  naturally  be  dropped 
out,  and  denunciations  which  in  the  changed  temper 
of  the  time  seemed  too  severe  would  be  modified 
or  supplemented  by  tenderer,  more  hopeful  strains. 
Thus  while  the  written  words  of  Isaiah  could  in  the 
first  place  have  been  but  a  fragment  of  the  great 
man's  public  utterances,  those  written  words,  through 
elisions  and  insertions,  became  less  and  less  represent- 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  83 

ative  of  him,  so  that  when,  in  the  second  century  b.  c, 
the  work  attained  its  present  shape,  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  the  book  going  under  the  name  of  Isaiah 
was  by  other  hands  than  his. 

This  is  substantially  what  might  reasonably  be 
expected  to  happen,  and  it  is  precisely  what  literary 
criticism  has  proved  to  have  happened.  Dr.  Cheyne, 
who,  better  than  any  one  else,  knows  this  book,  credits 
about  one-fifth  of  it  to  the  original  Isaiah,  holding  the 
first  eight  chapters  to  be  mainly  his  ;  from  this  point 
on,  here  and  there  a  fragment  as  far  as  to  chapter  32  ; 
the  two  whole  chapters  18  and  22.  The  eight  chap- 
ters, 32-39,  he  regards  as  very  late  work,  some  of  it 
as  late  as  the  age  of  the  Maccabees.  The  last  four 
of  these  chapters  purport  to  be  historical,  and  are  just 
such  history  as  we  should  expect  to  find  written  in  the 
third  century  covering  a  period  of  the  eighth  century. 
It  is  there  that  we  have  the  story  of  "the  angel 
of  Yahw^ "  raising  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  going 
into  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  and  smiting  185,000 
men,  so  that,  as  the  authorized  version  has  it,  "  when 
they  arose  early  in  the  morning  they  were  all  dead 
corpses."  It  is  there  that  we  have  the  yet  more 
astounding  story  of  the  shadow  on  the  royal  sun-dial 
being  made  to  move  backwards  ten  degrees  as  a  sign 
to  a  sick  king  that  his  life  would  be  prolonged  fifteen 


84        '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

years.*  Such  accounts  never  belong  to  the  time  in 
which  the  scene  is  laid,  but  to  a  long  subsequent 
period. 

At  the  40th  chapter  we  come  upon  an  entirely 
different  order  of  prophecy,  the  work  of  Jewish  cap- 
tives in  Babylonia.  The  original  Isaiah,  like  the  other 
eighth-century  prophets,  was  oppressed  with  a  sense 
of  coming  national  disaster.  The  Assyrian  power 
was  reaching  out  to  the  westward  and  crushing  all 
the  little  kingdoms ;  the  doom  of  Israel  impended ;  it 
might  be  delayed,  it  could  not  be  averted.  According 
to  the  prophetic  habit  of  thought,  this  doom  was 
attributable  to  the  sins  of  the  people,  was  a  punish- 
ment for  their  neglect  of  the  service  of  Yahw^.  Such 
a  mode  of  interpreting  a  purely  political  situation 
gave  to  those  early  prophets  an  austerity,  a  hope- 
lessness, relieved  only  by  their  high  moral  purpose 
and  their  still  unfailing  confidence  in  God.  They 
stood  in  the  attitude  of  men  facing  a  dread  calamity 
which  is  but  a  just  retribution,  burdened  with  a  fearful 
anticipation  of  judgment.  A  century  and  a  half  later, 
when  the  blow  had  fallen  and  the  first  agony  was  past, 
the  people  in  exile  began  to  pluck  up  hope,  and  to 
look  for  a  deliverer  who  should  redeem  them  from 


*  These  marvels  are  told  also  in  II.  Kings  19:  35 ;  20J  11. 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  85 

captivity.  Their  prophets  began  to  voice  this  hope, 
and  an  order  of  prophecy  arose  contrasting  strongly 
with  the  old,  a  bugle-call  to  great  and  glorious  things. 
Some  of  these  utterances,  doubtless  the  noblest,  are 
preserved  to  us  here,  striking  a.  wholly  new  note,  com- 
mencing with  the  words :  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye 
my  people,  saith  your  God."  The  writer  sees  signs 
of  deliverance  from  captivity,  and  pictures  in  glowing 
colors  the  return  of  the  people  to  their  own  land,  the 
rebuilding  of  cities  and  temples,  the  re-establishment 
of  the  throne  of  David  with  power  such  as  David 
never  knew,  the  coming  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  to  do  homage  at  Jerusalem.  So  jubilant  a  song 
no  Jew  had  ever  sung  before.  It  runs  through  nine 
chapters.  Then  follow  six  chapters  which  some  critics 
think  are  mainly  by  the  same  author  or  authors,  attrib- 
uted by  others  to  another  prophet,  writing  partly  in 
Babylonia,  partly  in  Jerusalem ;  in  either  case  they 
have  received  later  additions  and  emendations.  The 
remaining  eleven  chapters  are  certainly  by  other  hands, 
and  were  written,  for  the  most  part,  about  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century  b.  c* 

By  far  the  most  remarkable  of  these  supplementary 

*  The  peculiar  passage,  63  :  7-64  :  12,  is  believed  to  date  from  the 
shameful  persecution  inflicted  by  Artaxerxes  Ochus  about  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  century. 


86        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

parts  is  that  written  anonymously  in  Babylonia  by  one 
(or  by  a  group)  known  now  as  the  Second  Isaiah. 
There  the  Jewish  theology  reaches  a  very  high  devel- 
opment ;  Yahw^  becomes  the  God,  not  of  Israel  only, 
but  of  all  nations,  and  every  people  is  destined  to  come 
to  his  worship.  The  glory  of  Israel  is  to  reveal  to 
the  whole  world  the  eternal  Power  and  Providence, 
the  Maker  and  Friend  of  man.  Thus  culminates  the 
spiritual  perception  whose  growth  we  have  been  tracing 
through  the  centuries  from  the  time  when  Yahw^  was 
only  one  of  countless  gods,  furious  and  vengeful,  con- 
tending with  one  another  for  the  supremacy.  It  was 
necessarily  a  slow  and  difficult  process.  The  idea  of 
monotheism  was  not  readily  reached,  and  when  reached, 
the  assumption  on  the  part  of  any  one  people  that 
theirs  was  the  only  true  God  had  a  look  of  narrow- 
mindedness  and  conceit  from  which  good  men  shrunk. 
It  was  something  that  could  only  be  done  by  and  for 
a  people  who  had  demonstrated  their  moral  and  spirit- 
itual  superiority,  and  had  in  hand  the  evidences  —  the 
great  characters  and  great  literary  achievements.  By 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century  a  jubilant  soul,  speaking 
from  the  very  summit  of  prophecy,  could  without  con- 
ceit make  the  daring  declaration. 

It  is  the  hopefulness  of  the  Second  Isaiah  (using 
this  designation  for  the  unknown  writer  or  writers),  so 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  87 

contrasting  with  the  tone  of  all  his  predecessors,  that 
makes  him  attractive  to  modern  readers.  But  as  the 
world  went  in  those  days,  the  man  who  looked  for  the 
best  did  not  ordinarily  show  the  truest  foresight.  It 
was  safer  to  predict  catastrophes  than  triumphs.  The 
exuberant  optimism  of  this  prophet  led  him  to  picture 
a  coming  glory  for  Israel  that  was  never  realized. 
There  was  a  return  of  some  of  the  captives  to 
Palestine  in  the  fifth  century,  but  their  condition 
there  never  had  the  remotest  resemblance  to  the 
prophet's  exultant  representations.  Indeed,  so  violent 
was  the  contrast,  his  words  seemed  to  them  a  mockery, 
filled  them  with  a  heart-sickness.  But  now  that  these 
disappointments  are  long  past,  we  read  the  glowing 
pages  of  this  poet-prophet  of  the  captivity  with  un- 
qualified admiration  of  his  courage,  of  his  hope,  and 
of  his  rapt  imagination. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  a  consideration  of  the  book  of 
Isaiah  carries  us  over  a  long  period  —  more  than  five 
hundred  years  —  during  which  it  was  being  written 
and  brought  to  its  present  shape.  We  are  carried  in 
fact  far  beyond  the  great  age  of  prophecy,  down  into 
a  time  of  very  inferior  work,  some  little  of  which  has 
found  its  way  into  this  book.  The  main  part,  how- 
ever, is  by  the  master  minds,  and  the  book  as  a  whole 
rather  gains  than  suffers  in  not  being  entirely  by  the 


88       "The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

son  of  Amoz.  Of  course  there  is  an  entire  sacrifice 
of  unity  ;  but  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  the  advan- 
tage of  a  many-sidedness,  coming  from  many  different 
points  of  view.  We  may  well  wish  that  we  knew  the 
names  of  some  of  the  chief  builders  after  Isaiah  in 
this  literary  construction,  —  though  feeling  that  it  is 
no  small  tribute  to  his  greatness,  the  readiness  of  so 
many  to  sink  their  separate  distinction  that  they  might 
swell  the  glory  of  his  name. 

After  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz  we  have  no  name  of 
prophet  for  near  a  hundred  years.  The  very  great- 
ness of  his  reputation  may  have  stood  in  the  way  of 
others  acquiring  renown  in  the  same  field.  Three 
prophets,  seldom  mentioned  now,  are  generally  assigned 
to  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventh  century,  each  on 
the  strength  of  a  leaflet  of  two  or  three  little  pages  bear- 
ing his  name,  —  Nahum,  Zephaniah,  and  Habakkuk. 
Of  Nahum  nothing  whatever  is  known  beyond  his 
leaflet,  of  which  but  about  half  is  considered  genuine. 
All  we  know  of  Zephaniah  personally  is  his  own  state- 
ment that  he  was  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  genera- 
tion from  Hezekiah,  but  whether  he  meant  the  king 
of  that  name  is  uncertain.  What  these  two  left 
behind,  slight  as  it  is,  has  the  virtue  of  being  intel- 
ligible. But  Habakkuk,  who  is  equally  unknown 
except  in  legend,  is  obscure  to  the  modern  reader. 


'The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  89 

Another  and  far  greater  name  of  the  same  period, 
standing  out  clearly  through  a  vista  of  twenty-five 
hundred  years,  draws  all  eyes  away  from  these. 

Jeremiah  comes  into  view  in  the  year  625  b.  c, 
from  which  it  is  inferred  that  he  was  born  about  the 
middle  of  the  seventh  century.  His  father  was  a 
priest  of  Anathoth,  a  village  now  called  Anata,  a  little 
way  to  the  northeast  of  Jerusalem,  not  in  sight  of  the 
city,  but  looking  down  on  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  lower 
Jordan  —  a  prospect  answering  well  to  his  sad  and 
austere  spirit.  In  early  manhood  he  became  convinced 
that  God  had  made  him  a  messenger  to  the  people, 
appointed  him  a  prophet  unto  the  nations.  He  is 
reported  to  have  shrunk  away  from  the  responsibility 
and  spoken  of  himself  as  incapable,  as  only  a  child. 
Then  a  voice  within  him,  the  voice  of  Yahw^, 
responded  :  "  Say  not,  *  I  am  a  child ' ;  for  on  what- 
ever errand  I  shall  send  thee  thou  shalt  go,  and  what- 
soever I  shall  command  thee  thou  shalt  speak.  Be 
not  afraid."  To  render  assurance  doubly  sure  Yahw6, 
we  are  told,  put  forth  his  hand  and  touched  his  mouth, 
saying,  "  I  have  put  my  words  in  thy  mouth :  see,  I 
have  this  day  set  thee  over  the  nations  and  over  the 
kingdoms,  to  pluck  up  and  to  break  down,  to  build 
and  to  plant."  From  this  time  on  through  forty  years 
he  spoke  as  though  clothed  with  this  authority. 


90       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

There  was  once  apparently  a  "Biography  of 
Jeremiah,"  and  from  this  it  appears  that  the  com- 
pilers of  the  book  of  Jeremiah  drew,  for  the  personal 
reminiscences  of  the  prophet  scattered  through  it. 
The  Biography  may  long  have  had  a  separate  exist- 
ence, and  been  the  source  from  which  were  taken  the 
quotations  of  this  prophet,  in  Maccabees  and  the  New 
Testament,  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  existing 
book  of  Jeremiah.  * 

It  is  not  possible  to  suppose  that  Jeremiah  wrote 
all  of  the  book  that  goes  by  his  name ;  in  fact  there 
is  no  certainty  that  with  his  own  hand  he  wrote  any 
of  it.  As  has  been  well  said,  ''this  prophet  was  not 
a  holy  penman,  but  a  preacher  of  righteousness." 
There  are  indications  that  writing  was  irksome  to  him  ; 
that  he  spoke  with  ease,  but  preferred  to  leave  the 
taking  down  of  his  words  to  others.  Thus  it  is 
reported  (30 :  2)  that  Yahwe  commanded  him,  "  Write 
thee  all  the  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto  thee  in  a 
book."  But  a  year  or  so  after,  when  he  needed  such 
a  book  to  present  to  the  king,  he  had  not  yet  made 
one,  and,  according  to  the  story,  when  commanded 
again  to  do  so,  put  the  work  off  on  another  (36 :  2, 
32).      It  is  very  certain  that  only  a  small  part,  if 


*  II.  Mace.  2  :  I  ff.;  Matt.  27  :  9. 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  91 

indeed  any,  of  the  book  as  we  have  it,  was  written 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  prophet.  The  writing  grew 
through  the  centuries,  much  as  we  have  seen  that  the 
book  of  Isaiah  grew.  It  came  out  in  booklets  of  a 
few  pages,  published  after  his  death  at  considerable 
intervals,  the  first  to  appear  being  naturally  the  most 
authentic.  The  beginning  of  each  of  these  originally 
separate  collections  is  marked  by  the  superscription, 
nearly  uniform  :  "  The  word  which  came  to  Jeremiah 
from  Yahwe  "  ;  and  of  these,  eight  or  ten  are  readily 
made  out.  The  first  in  order  in  the  book  are  usually 
the  oldest  chapters ;  though  not  always,  for  the  orig- 
inal order  has  been  somewhat  changed  by  late  editors. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  what  part  of  the 
writings  bearing  the  name  of  Jeremiah  really  came 
from  him.  Two  opposing  facts  confront  us  at  the 
outset  of  such  an  investigation,  viz. :  This  prophet 
was  not  given  to  writing  ;  the  writings  in  question  are 
voluminous,  —  longer  than  any  other  book  of  the 
Bible,  save  only  the  book  of  Psalms.  If  we  are  to 
credit  the  statements  in  the  36th  chapter,  it  would 
appear  that  twenty-two  years  after  he  commenced  to 
prophesy  he  had  not  yet  written  a  word,  nor  had  any- 
body else  taken  down  his  utterances.  What  under 
these  circumstances  he  is  reported  to  have  done, 
whether  historical  or  not,  is  important  as  indicating 


92       1'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  way  in  which  it  was  deemed  possible  to  make  good 
enough  records  in  those  days.  Jeremiah,  without  a 
scrap  of  writing,  without  a  note  of  date  or  occasion, 
sits  down  with  Baruch,  his  companion,  pressed  into 
service  as  amanuensis,  and  they  together  undertake  to 
recall  and  write  out  all  the  public  utterances  of 
Jeremiah  made  in  the  preceding  twenty-two  years ! 
Obviously  such  a  writing  could  not  have  been  very 
extensive.  However  good  the  memory  of  the  two 
men,  they  would  not  be  able  to  recover  a  hundredth 
part  of  his  sayings.  Still,  what  under  such  circum- 
stances was  written  out  would  at  least  have  the  virtue 
of  being  his,  whether  or  not  it  was  exactly  what  he 
said  on  the  various  occasions  referred  to.  So,  too, 
what  was  written  down  after  his  death  by  the  disciples 
who  had  heard  his  spoken  words  would  surely  preserve 
some  flavor  of  the  original  utterances.  But  this  is 
more  than  can  be  said  of  large  additions  made  by 
men  of  long  subsequent  generations.  In  a  general  way 
it  may  be  said  that  the  first  twenty  chapters  contain 
considerable  that  is  the  prophet's  own.  The  same 
may  be  said  with  less  positiveness  of  the  next  four 
chapters.  Beyond  the  24th  chapter  there  is  little, 
probably,  that  Jeremiah  would  recognize  as  his  if  he 
were  to  see  it.  Much  of  the  last  half  of  the  book 
was  written  as  late  as  the  latter  part  of  the  second 


^he  'Three  Extended  Prophecies  93 

century  b.  c.  Six  chapters  (40-44  and  52)  cover  a 
period  outside  the  time  Umitation  set  in  the  book 
itself  (i  :  3).  The  last  chapter  is  copied  with  slight 
variations  from  the  closing  part  of  the  Second  Book 
of  Kings.  Another  considerable  addition  is  what  is 
called  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  joined  to  the 
prophecy  in  some  old  versions,  but  separated  in  our 
bibles.  These  poems  used  to  be  considered  the  work 
of  the  prophet,  and  they  have  created  the  legend  of 
him  as  a  mournful  figure  pouring  out  rivers  of  tears. 
In  fact  they  are  far  removed  from  his  simple,  straight- 
forward style,  being  poems  of  a  highly  artificial  type, 
mostly  acrostics  in  the  original,  efforts  at  fine  writing 
not  in  his  line.  They  are  a  series  of  wailings  akin 
to  certain  of  the  Psalms,  called  out  by  the  successive 
disasters  which  overtook  the  Jews  in  the  centuries 
after  the  exile. 

From  words  which  may  with  reason  be  taken  for 
actual  utterances  of  Jeremiah,  it  appears  that,  not- 
withstanding the  efforts  of  prophets  from  Elijah's  time 
to  his,  the  worship  of  heathen  gods  still  largely  pre- 
vailed in  Judah.  He  boldly  accuses  the  people  of 
having  as  many  gods  as  they  had  towns  :  "According 
to  the  number  of  thy  cities  are  thy  gods,  O  Judah  !  " 
Of  all  these  he  is  very  contemptuous,  caUing  them 
stocks   and   stones,  the  lifeless  handiwork  of  their 


94       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

own  stupid  worshipers.  This  marks  a  radical  change 
from  earlier  conceptions.  The  worship  of  Yahw^ 
under  the  form  of  a  golden  or,  rather,  gilded  calf, 
which  had  prevailed  in  the  Northern  kingdom, 
ended  with  the  extinction  of  that  kingdom  by  the 
Assyrians  in  the  year  722  b.  c.  In  Jerusalem  and 
the  other  cities  of  Judah  the  Yahwe-ritual,  looked 
after  by  a  great  number  of  priests,  had  grown  ever 
more  elaborate,  and  was  surely  crowding  the  pagan 
cults  to  the  wall.  Nevertheless  the  public  morals, 
judged  by  Jeremiah's  standard,  were  low,  and  the 
national  calamities  which  he  clearly  saw  impending 
were,  in  his  thought,  but  the  just  and  inevitable  pen- 
alty of  his  people's  sins.  This  reasoning  made  the 
Babylonian  invader  the  minister  of  Yahw^,  and  even 
led  the  prophet,  when  Jerusalem  was  besieged,  to 
counsel  capitulation,  thus  bringing  himself  under 
plausible  charge  of  disloyalty.  But  never  was  a  truer 
patriot,  and  few  have  suffered  more  for  their  country. 
The  certain  doom  hanging  over  his  people  was  to  him 
a  life-long  agony,  unrelieved  by  any  hope  of  rescue. 
The  touches  of  hope  thrown  in  here  and  there,  the 
famous  foretelling  of  a  return  from  captivity  after 
seventy  years,  are  not  his,  but  later  accretions,  post- 
eventum  prophecies.  After  all  the  services  of  the 
great  man,  he  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  general  confusion 


The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  95 

at  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  we  are  without  knowledge 
as  to  what  was  his  end. 

The  old  Christian  reckoning  of  greater  prophets 
included  four,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel. 
But  Daniel  has  declined  in  importance  under  modern 
criticism,  and  has  lost  such  rank.  It  remains,  there- 
fore, for  the  present,  to  consider  only  the  life  and 
work  of  Ezekiel. 

Ezekiel  was  a  younger  contemporary  of  Jeremiah. 
He  belonged  to  the  priestly  order,  and  his  early 
years  were  spent  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  in  prep- 
aration for  the  functions  of  the  priestly  office.  He 
was  probably  yet  only  a  young  man  at  the  time 
Jerusalem  fell  into  the  hands  of  Nebuchadrezzar, 
when,  with  a  considerable  number  of  the  more  im- 
portant people  of  the  city,  he  was  carried  off  to 
Babylon.  This  was  in  the  year  597  b.  c.  He  never 
again  saw  his  native  land,  spending  his  days  at  Tel- 
abib  with  the  other  captives,  whose  numbers  were 
swollen  by  subsequent  deportation  of  Jews  from 
Palestine.  The  new  experiences  brought  him  to  feel 
that  he  was  made  for  more  than  a  priest,  and  in  the 
year  592  came  the  strong  conviction  that  he  was 
called  to  be  a  prophet.  In  answering  the  call  he  did 
not  relinquish  the  priesthood,  and  he  has  the  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  last  of  the  great  prophets  known  to 


96        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

us  by  name,  and  the  first  of  the  great  priests.  But 
for  six  years  he  made  no  prophetic  pubhc  utterance, 
contenting  himself,  for  that  length  of  time,  in  writing 
the  first  twenty-four  chapters  of  his  book.  The 
motive  of  this  silence  is  not  apparent.  Perhaps  he 
was  overawed  by  the  fame  of  Jeremiah ;  perhaps  he 
preferred  to  keep  back  his  forecast  of  the  terrible 
fate  of  Jerusalem  till  time  should  determine  whether 
he  was  correct ;  at  any  rate  he  held  his  peace  until 
the  voice  of  his  venerable  predecessor  was  hushed  in 
the  overthrow  and  destruction  of  the  city.  He  then 
published  what  he  had  written ;  and,  as  he  had  oppor- 
tunity, presumably  he  revised  and  retouched.  His 
denunciations  of  Jerusalem  for  idolatry  and  wicked- 
ness are  bitter  and  furious  in  the  extreme.  Her  sins 
exceed  those  of  Sodom,  and  no  symbols  to  which  he 
can  turn  his  tongue  are  vile  enough  to  represent  her. 
In  his  indelicacies  he  outdoes  even  Hosea.*  One  can- 
not but  think  that  these  prophecies,  published  after 
the  event,  were  colored  to  make  the  terrible  fate  of 
the  city  seem  not  an  undue  punishment,  painting  her 
black  enough  so  that  she  might  seem  to  have  got  only 
her  just  deserts  at  the  hand  of  Yahwe. 

The  next  eight  chapters  (25-32)  are  predictions 


*  Chapter  i6  passim,  notably  verse  25. 


^he  'Three  Extended  Prophecies  97 

of  the  destruction  of  foreign  nations,  all  that  have 
troubled  Israel,  big  and  little,  save  only  Babylon. 
Ezekielp  like  Jeremiah,  favors  Babylon  purely  on 
political  grounds  ;  it  is  not  pretended  that  she  is  any 
better  than  the  rest  religiously  or  morally.  They  saw 
there  the  conquering  power,  in  which  alone  could 
their  people  hope  for  anything  short  of  utter  destruc- 
tion ;  to  go  against  Babylon  was  to  go  to  certain  ruin. 
The  rest  of  the  known  world  was  to  be  mercilessly 
exterminated  or  reduced  to  humble  vassalage.  Babylon 
was  to  be  the  destroying  power,  the  instrument  of  the 
vengeance  of  Yahw^.  Indeed,  the  one  purpose  of 
inflicting  all  this  destruction,  reiterated  continually  in 
the  predictions,  is,  that  the  people  destroyed  "may 
know  that  I  am  Yahwe."  This  does  not  seem  to  the 
modern  reader  a  perfectly  satisfactory  motive  ;  but  we 
may  at  least  see  in  it  the  rising  conviction,  apparent 
also  in  Jeremiah,  that  Yahw6  is  in  reality  the  one  and 
only  God.  But  Ezekiel  is  far  from  intimating  that 
Yahw^  cares  anything  for  foreign  peoples.  He  cares 
not  particularly  for  individuals  of  any  race.  His  deal- 
ing is  with  nations. 

Having,  in  his  predictions,  disposed  of  other  nations, 
the  prophet  turns  in  the  next  chapters  (33-39)  to 
the  moral  instruction  and  consolation  of  his  fellow- 
captives.    So  terrible  had  been  the  experiences  through 


98        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

which  they  had  passed,  and  so  profoundly  were  they 
impressed  by  the  prophetic  representation  of  their 
sufferings  as  but  the  just  penalty  of  their  idolatries 
and  of  their  other  sins,  there  awoke  in  them  a  truly 
religious  spirit,  a  spirit  of  obedience  and  earnest 
devotion,  resulting,  for  one  thing,  in  a  final  abandon- 
ment of  idolatry. 

Doubtless,  too,  the  exiles  in  the  latter  part  of  their 
captivity,  while  subject  to  the  Persians,  were  consid- 
erably influenced  by  the  religious  ideas  of  that  people ; 
how  considerably  is  an  inquiry  which  would  take  us 
here  too  far  afield.  But  certain  it  is  that  from  this 
time  on  the  conceptions  of  Zarathustra  crop  out  con- 
tinually in  Jewish  writings.  Already,  during  the 
exile,  the  Second  Isaiah  calls  the  Persian  Cyrus  the 
shepherd  of  Yahwe  (44  :  28),  "  his  anointed,"  i.  e.y 
Messiah  (45  :  i). 

Ezekiel  expected  that  the  captives  would  shortly  be 
permitted  to  return  to  their  native  land,  and  in  the 
last  nine  chapters  of  his  book  he  constructs  for  them 
what  may  be  called  a  new  Constitution.  In  this  he 
exhibits  a  remarkable  ability,  devising  a  scheme  by 
which  Church  and  State  should  be  virtually  separate, 
yet  having  related  functions  making  each  the  helpmate 
of  the  other.  As  priest,  versed  in  his  profession,  he 
prescribes  the  ritual  to  be  observed,  which,  by  its 


T'he  Three  Extended  Prophecies  99 

marked  development  beyond  the  Deuteronomic  reg- 
ulations first  brought  into  use  only  fifty  years  before, 
shows  a  rapid  growth  of  sacerdotalism.  Previous  to 
the  appearance  of  Deuteronomy  in  62 1  b.  c,  Levites 
and  priests  were  one  class,  and  in  that  book  no  dis- 
tinction was  made ;  but  as  it  required  the  discontin- 
uance of  offerings  at  the  "  high-places  "  about  the 
country,  and  recognized  only  the  one  altar  at  Jerusa- 
lem, it  practically  threw  the  country  priests  out  of  bus- 
iness. They  could  only  come  into  the  city  and  accept 
such  subordinate  positions  about  the  temple  as  were 
offered  them,  or  abandon  their  calling.  The  country 
priest,  as  we  can  readily  understand,  was  a  less  culti- 
vated person  than  his  city  brothers  who,  from  long  en- 
joying the  perquisites  of  the  temple,  had  become  a  class 
by  themselves,  refining  on  their  Levite  distinction  by 
calling  themselves  the  "  sons  of  Zadok  "  or  "the  sons 
of  Aaron."  Thus  the  Deuteronomic  legislation  intro- 
duced a  difficulty  it  did  not  provide  for :  it  left  too 
many  priests  for  the  one  altar  to  which  it  restricted 
service.  This  difficulty  Ezekiel  undertakes  to  meet 
by  lessening  the  number  of  priests,  making  a  clear 
distinction  between  priests  and  Levites;  which  he 
does  by  limiting  the  priesthood  to  the  sons  of  Zadok, 
that  is  to  the  old  circle  who,  time  out  of  mind,  have 
had  charge  of  the  temple  duties,  leaving  the  Levites 


lOO       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

or  country  ministers  only  the  subordinate  offices  of 
singers  and  servants.  He  also  plans  a  new  temple, 
prophesies  a  reunion  of  the  twelve  tribes,  and  appor- 
tions the  territory  of  Palestine  to  them  by  drawing 
parallels  of  latitude  across  the  country,  —  ideas  which 
were  never  to  be  carried  out.  In  the  nature  of  the 
case,  much  of  his  planning  served  no  further  purpose 
than  to  occupy  the  minds  of  the  people  in  the  waiting 
years  of  their  captivity.  As  belonged  to  a  priest,  he 
showed  a  better  judgment  in  Church  than  in  State 
affairs.  A  feature  of  his  prophecy  is  that  it  takes  the 
form  of  visions,  strange  and  monstrous.  The  prophets 
all  had  their  idiosyncrasies,  but  Ezekiel  is  the  only 
one  who  really  had  "  wheels  in  his  head."  A  recur- 
ring vision  is  that  of  the  four-faced,  wheeled  cherubs, 
suggesting  cyclists. 

Insertions  in  this  book  have  evidently  been  made 
here  and  there  to  correct  the  prophet  or  to  tone  him 
down.  He  even  made  corrections  himself,  writing 
a  new  prophecy  to  replace  one  that  had  failed  of  fulfill- 
ment, while  indifferently  letting  the  old  representation 
stand.  *  Though  the  text  is  often  corrupt,  showing 
that  it  has  been  tampered  with,  still  we  probably  have 
more  of  the  genuine  words  of  this  than  of  either  of 


♦Thus  29:  17-21   rectifies  26:  12;    Tyre  not  being  spoiled  by 
Nebuchadrezzar. 


'The  Three  Extended  Prophecies  loi 

the  other  great  prophets.  So  too  we  seem  to  have 
more  of  the  real  Jeremiah  than  of  the  real  Isaiah.  In 
volume  of  matter  that  endures,  each  successor  shows 
an  increase,  while  each  is  less  and  less  a  genius. 
Civilization  grows,  religion  grows ;  but  greatness  in 
individual  men  cannot  be  counted  on  to  advance  with 
the  advancing  world.  These  three  masters  —  each  in 
the  measure  of  his  genius  rather  than  in  the  bulk  of 
his  literary  remains  —  did  that  which  at  once  con- 
stituted the  chief  glory  of  their  age  and  most  effect- 
ually lifted  the  mind  and  the  morals  of  their  people 
distinctly  above  what  the  world  had  elsewhere  to 
show ;  and  they  thus  laid  the  foundation  of  that  spir- 
itual hegemony  of  Israel  on  which  Christianity  itself 
is  built.  The  point  is  not  as  to  the  actual  attainment 
of  these  men,  their  knowledge  or  their  accomplish- 
ments, as  compared  with  modern  leaders ;  it  is  the 
immense  advance  made  by  them  on  their  predecessors, 
the  steps  in  the  right  direction  taken,  the  vigorous 
push  onward  toward  the  goal.  They  had  their  faces 
turned  to  the  light,  and  though  they  saw  not  all  the 
truth  that  has  ever  been  discovered,  they  saw  the 
needed  truth  of  the  hour,  and  saw  it  so  vividly  that 
their  word  for  the  most  part  calls  for  no  amendment. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
The  Development  of  Law. 

Old  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Law-books  —  Alleged  Mosaic  author- 
ship —  The  germ,  far  older,  in  Hammurabi's  code  —  Early  stages 
of  legal  evolution  in  Israel  —  More  religious  than  civil  —  Original 
liberty  to  worship  in  any  place  —  Occasion  for  restricting  this  — 
The  finding  of  Deuteronomy  —  Its  sweeping  prohibition  of  all 
altars  but  one  —  Josiah  enforces  the  new  Law  —  In  exile  Ezekiel 
devises  further  statutes  —  Cyrus  takes  Babylon  and  liberates 
the  captive  Jews  —  A  few  return  to  Judea  —  Zechariah's  pro- 
phetic encouragement  —  The  temple  in  a  manner  rebuilt  —  Slack- 
ness of  religious  observance  on  the  part  of  those  who  had 
remained  in  the  home-land  —  Ezra  arrives  from  Babylonia  "  with 
the  Law  of  God  in  his  hand  "  —  Its  promulgation  —  Largely  a 
new  disclosure  —  Most  extended  development  of  Law  in  Israel 
—  Summary  of  the  Law-giving. 

THE  Jews'  theory  of  the  origin  of  their  written 
law  —  theory  accepted  without  question  by 
Christians  until  recent  times  —  is  that  it  was 
given  by  Yahw^  outright  to  Moses  on  the  passage 
from  Egypt  to  the  Promised  Land.  This  revelation, 
in  the  tradition,  was  accompanied  by  such  signs  and 
wonders  as  to  clothe  it  with  an  authority  out  of  com- 
parison superior  to  that  of  the  prophets,  to  whom  also 
Yahw^  is  said  to  have  spoken.  It  consists  of  the 
Genesis  history  and  the  four  Law-books  (the  Pen- 


^he  Development  of  Law  103 

tatcuch),  all  of  which,  according  to  the  theory,  Moses 
wrote  out  at  the  dictation  of  Yahw^  and  left  as  a 
heritage  to  his  people.  This  theory,  which  stood 
practically  unquestioned  for  ages,  has  been  thoroughly 
undermined  by  modern  criticism,  and  few  now  of  any 
pretension  to  scholarship  or  even  decent  general  in- 
formation are  so  poor  as  to  do  it  reverence.  To  begin 
with,  it  flies  in  the  face  of  the  well-established  doc- 
trine of  evolution  that  all  high  things  are  of  lowly 
origin,  coming  to  excellence  through  gradual  and  long- 
continued  stages  of  development,  and  goes  on  the 
assumption,  once  the  groundwork  of  creed  and  cate- 
chism, that  perfection  was  in  the  past,  the  golden  age 
at  the  beginning ;  that  the  wisest  man,  the  meekest 
man,  the  strongest  man,  the  longest-lived  man,  lived 
ages  ago ;  that  the  men  with  whom  God  could  deign 
to  speak  are  all  long  since  dead.  The  science  of  our 
time  has  deprived  such  fancies  of  any  respectable 
standing ;  and  now  the  supposition  that  Moses  could 
have  written  the  Pentateuch,  or  that  the  complex  and 
elaborate  legal  regulations  therein  contained  could 
have  been  of  any  use  to  the  Hebrews  of  his  time,  is 
prima  facie  so  improbable  that  evidence  sufficiently 
convincing  ever  again  to  revive  it  is  impossible. 
Moreover,  the  oldest  authentic  testimony  we  have, 
that  of  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century,  as  far  as 


I04       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

it  goes,  negatives  any  such  supposition.  Rosea  in  a 
single  verse,  and  that  of  doubtful  genuineness,  refers 
to  written  laws  current  in  his  day,  but  not  in  a  way  to 
identify  them  with  any  such  work  as  the  Pentateuch 
(Hos.  8:  12).  Assuredly,  if  that  work  had  been  in 
existence  he  would  have  made  the  fact  plain,  as,  later 
on,  Jeremiah  made  it  plain  that  he  knew  of  some  part 
of  it  (Jer.  7 :  22  ff.).  Besides,  as  we  shall  see,  it  is 
now  quite  possible  to  fix,  within  reasonable  limits,  the 
date  of  the  several  Law-books. 

The  claim  that  Moses  wrote  the  first  five  books  of 
the  Bible,  or  anything  like  them,  being  effectually  dis- 
posed of,  the  question  remains.  Did  he  leave  any 
written  rules  for  the  government  of  his  people } 
While  there  is  no  decisive  data  from  which  to  deter- 
mine this  matter,  there  are  certain  facts  which  yield 
an  appearance  of  probability.  Discoveries  of  the  last 
half-century  show  that  the  age  of  Moses  was  not  an 
altogether  benighted  one ;  that  from  certain  centers 
considerable  enlightenment  radiated ;  that  writing  was 
an  art  widely  known  and  practised.  Even  tribes  of 
the  desert  must  in  some  measure  have  felt  the  influ- 
ence of  this  civilization.  *  Moses,  if  there  really  was 
such  a  man,  may  well  have  spent  his  early  life  in 


*  See  page  32. 


^he  Development  of  Law  105 

Egypt  and  been  versed  in  such  wisdom  as  the 
Egyptians  had.  Then  there  is  the  persistent  tradition 
of  him,  which  to  be  sure  cannot  be  definitely  traced 
beyond  the  eighth  century,  as  the  lawgiver  of  Israel. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  a  violent  supposi- 
tion that  he  wrote  out  for  the  guidance  of  the  people 
some  simple  regulations  concerning  such  matters  as 
the  primitive  writing  of  a  tribe  is  apt  to  deal  with  — 
religious  ceremonies,  laws  of  taboo,  magic  arts,  etc. ; 
together  with  some  current  legends  of  far-off  ancestors. 
He  may,  too,  have  left  a  Decalogue  of  some  sort, 
having  some  little  ethical  quality,  the  germ  of  that 
which  now  remains.  If  the  great  chieftain  did  this 
much,  it  would  have  proved  sufficient  basis  for  the 
tradition  that  he  wrote  the  Pentateuch ;  just  as  David's 
having  had  some  little  gift  for  song  and  for  the  harp 
sufficed,  along  with  his  kingly  distinction,  to  get  him 
the  credit  of  writing  the  book  of  Psalms. 

Whatever  writing  it  was  that  Moses  left,  it  was  not 
likely  to  be  much  read  by  people  of  the  grade  of  the 
Hebrews  of  the  second  millennium  b.  c.  Of  no  great 
length,  it  would  be  familiarized  orally,  as  is  the  custom 
of  primitive  peoples.  Few  copies  would  be  made,  we 
may  be  sure.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  original  was 
placed  in  the  ark ;  if  so,  it  passed  out  of  existence 
with  that  rude  reliquary. 


io6       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

As  time  went  on  and  the  Hebrews  established  them- 
selves in  Canaan,  they  must  have  come  gradually  more 
under  Babylonian  literary  influence.  The  diffusion  of 
literature  in  those  days,  while  not  on  a  scale  made 
possible  by  the  printing-press,  was  real,  and  surely 
reached  to  the  most  secluded  people  in  western  Asia. 
Babylon  had  been  making  books  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  as  she  then  dominated  to  the  Mediterranean,  she 
must  necessarily  have  had  much  to  do  in  shaping  the 
intellectual  Hfe  of  the  Hebrews.  From  this  source 
they  inevitably  drew,  as  soon  as  the  brightest  among 
them  took  to  writing,  much  that  was  naturally  added 
to  the  words  of  Moses.  As  before  stated,  *  they 
adapted  the  Babylonian  stories  of  the  creation  and  the 
flood ;  it  is  perfectly  evident  also  that  they  drew  from 
Hammurabi's  code,  which  had  long  been  a  sort  of 
common  law  for  all  the  region  round  about.  In  this 
way,  presumably,  the  growth  of  written  law  went  on 
in  Israel,  very  slowly  indeed,  without  any  marked 
stage  that  can  now  be  traced,  during  some  four 
hundred  years.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  at  any  rate, 
the  Israelites  were  formulating  some  definite  writ- 
ten regulations,  and  these,  backed  up  by  myths  and 
legends,  were  afterwards  incorporated  in  the  History 


*  See  page  34. 


The  Development  of  Law  107 

and  Law  books  which  have  come  down  to  us,  where 
they  may  severally  be  traced.  These  earliest  discern- 
ible writers,  with  their  later  redactors,  the  critics 
designate  by  alphabetical  symbols,  and  speak  of  "  D  " 
and  "  E  "  and  **  J  "  and  "  P,"  and  the  rest,  as  though 
these  were  the  actual  names  of  fairly  well-known 
individuals.  Into  this  field,  however,  it  is  not  expedi- 
ent here  to  enter.* 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  the  incre- 
ments to  the  germinal  Law  of  Moses  made  in  the 
early  time  were  made  in  his  name.  Presumably  they 
were.  Such  was  surely  the  case  with  the  expansions 
made  in  the  ninth  and  eighth  centuries.  Hence  the 
steady  and  enormous  growth  of  the  Mosaic  legend. 
But  the  code  thus  produced  was  fragmentary  and  to  a 
degree  inoperative,  as  would  appear  from  the  exceed- 
ingly slight  and  dubious  reference  to  it  in  the  oldest 
prophets.  Down  to  the  beginning  of  the  career  of 
Jeremiah  there  was  no  authoritative  Law-book  such 
as  in  after  centuries  constituted  the  chief  boast  of 
Israel.  Established  custom,  in  mode  of  worship  as 
in  other  matters,  was  law,  and  such  guide-books  as 
existed,    while   doubtless    supporting   themselves   on 


*  AH  this  matter,  too  abstruse  for  presentation  here,  will  be  found 
set  forth  in  Bible  Dictionaries  and  Encyclopaedias  under  the  head  of 
one  and  another  of  the  History  and  Law  books. 


io8        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Moses,  simply  reflected  existing  custom.  Some  of 
these  earlier  customs  we  can  trace.  The  oldest 
stratum  of  Exodus  and  Numbers  fully  recognizes,  as 
do  the  oldest  prophets,  the  right  to  worship  in  any 
place.  Wherever  the  worshiper  found  himself,  he 
might  build  an  altar  and  make  an  offering.  Shrines 
were  established  all  over  the  country,  on  every  hill- 
top, and  there  was  no  more  question  of  their  regular- 
ity than  of  the  regularity  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem. 
As  these  outlying  places  of  worship  were  not  easily 
supervised  by  a  central  authority,  and  proved  a  serious 
obstacle  to  the  efforts  of  the  better  priests  and 
prophets  for  an  exclusive  worship  of  Yahwe,  —  the 
village  priests  being  frequently  open  to  the  seductions 
of  foreign  gods,  —  a  sentiment  began  shaping  itself 
early  in  the  seventh  century  in  favor  of  the  centraliza- 
tion of  worship  as  a  means  of  exterminating  idolatry. 
In  the  year  638  there  came  to  the  throne  of  Judah  a 
boy  of  eight  years,  named  Josiah,  who  from  the  first 
was  wholly  under  the  influence  of  the  party  of  this 
reform.  In  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign  an 
extraordinary  thing  happened  to  break  the  monotony 
of  Jewish  literary  history. 

The  incident  with  which  this  event  connects  itself 
is  of  the  most  commonplace.  The  temple  at  Jerusalem 
required   some  repairs.      Preliminary  to   this  work, 


The  Development  of  Law  109 

Josiah  sent  his  secretary,  Shaphan,  to  Hilkiah,  the 
priest  in  charge,  with  direction  to  make  up  the  amount 
of  money  received  by  the  doorkeepers  from  the  volun- 
tary contributions  of  the  people,  and  to  hand  it  over 
to  the  men  to  be  entrusted  with  the  reparation.  When 
the  secretary  had  delivered  his  message,  Hilkiah  made 
to  him  the  announcement  that,  in  overhauling  the 
contents  of  the  part  of  the  temple  needing  repairs,  a 
book  had  been  found  —  the  Book  of  the  Law  !  So 
saying,  he  handed  him  the  book.  Shaphan  immedi- 
ately read  it,  and  then  took  it  to  the  king  and  read  it 
to  him.  It  was  in  form  a  new  book,  the  first  great 
compend  of  the  religious  duties  laid  on  Israel,  ostensi- 
bly a  communication  from  Yahw^  himself  to  Moses, 
giving  an  explicit  statement  of  his  requirements  of  his 
people,  and  setting  forth  the  consequences  of  obedience 
and  of  disobedience.  Naturally  it  made  a  profound  im- 
pression. King  and  court  were  thrown  into  a  state 
of  great  excitement,  for  the  book  contained  threats 
against  the  people  if  ever  they  should  be  guilty  of 
such  practices  as  were  then  common  in  Judah. 
Especially  did  it  denounce  multiplicity  of  altars ; 
Yahw^  could  be  worshiped  aright  only  in  his  central 
sanctuary.  Naturally  the  first  question  to  be  settled 
was  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  book.  Five  men  of 
rank,  among  whom  were  Shaphan  and  Hilkiah,  were 


no       fhe  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

commissioned  to  seek  out  an  oracle  on  this  point,  and 
to  ascertain  whether  the  frightful  penalties  appointed 
in  the  book  might  now  be  expected  to  fall  on  the 
kingdom.  Jeremiah  is  the  person  we  should  expect 
them  to  consult,  he  being  the  leading  prophet,  just 
rising  to  renown.  But  for  some  reason  they  did  not 
go  to  him,  but  sought  out  instead  a  prophetess  named 
Huldah.  Whatever  declaration  they  may  have  got 
from  her  in  regard  to  punishment  for  violations  of  a 
law  they  had  never  before  heard  of,  the  point  was 
established  to  their  satisfaction  that  the  new-found 
book  was  what  it  purported  to  be,  the  Word  of  Yahw^ 
to  Moses. 

This  book,  there  is  abundant  reason  to  believe,  was 
Deuteronomy,  in  its  original  form,  somewhat  less 
extended  than  as  we  know  it.*  The  greater  part  of 
the  book  was  certainly  not  new  at  the  time  of  its 
appearance ;  it  summed  up,  rather,  precepts  that  had 
been  current  and  regulations  that  had  been  observed 
time  out  of  mind,  the  writer  using  probably  many  an 
old  leaflet  in  making  his  compilation.  Some  of  his 
rules  are  traceable  to  the  code  of  Hammurabi,  then 
seventeen  hundred  years  old.  His  moral  teaching 
accords  with  that  of  the  great  prophets  of  the  eighth 


*  Subsequent  additions  are  :  chaps.  1-4,  27,  29-34. 


^he  Development  of  Law  1 1 1 

and  seventh  centuries.  There  is  in  him  even  a  spirit 
of  kindhness,  of  humanity,  not  always  to  be  found  in 
them.  Like  them  he  contends  stoutly  for  the  sole 
and  exclusive  worship  of  Yahw^,  and  is  priest  enough 
to  insist  strenuously,  as  they  do  not,  on  the  prescribed 
ritual  observances.  His  principal  departure,  however, 
from  previous  teaching  is  his  strict  limitation  of  sac- 
rificial offerings  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  (chaps. 
12-26).  This  was  a  sweeping  innovation,  leading  to 
nothing  less  than  a  religious  revolution.  Assuming 
to  write  from  a  period  some  six  hundred  and  fifty 
years  anterior,  he  was  able  to  use  his  knowledge  of 
intervening  history  to  enforce  his  injunctions.  His 
threats  of  public  calamities  for  transgression,  put  into 
the  mouth  of  Yahw^  addressing  Moses,  are  quite 
obviously  drawn  from  the  actual  experience  of  the 
nation  in  centuries  subsequent  to  Moses.  He  coun- 
seled for  exigencies  which  belonged  not  at  all  to  the 
age  of  the  exodus,  nor  to  an  immediately  subsequent 
time,  but  to  the  age  of  Josiah.  In  specifying  the  sort  of 
man  a  king  ought  not  to  be,  he  evidently  had  Solomon 
in  mind  (17  :  14-17) ;  and  Josiah  could  not  fail  to  see 
himself  portrayed  in  the  following  delineation  of  the 
good  king  :  "  And  it  shall  be  when  he  sitteth  upon  the 
throne  of  his  kingdom  that  he  shall  write  him  a  copy 
of  this  Law  in  a  book,  out  of  that  which  is  before  the 


1 1 2       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

priests,  the  Levites.  And  it  shall  be  with  him,  and 
he  shall  read  therein  all  the  days  of  his  life ;  that  he 
may  learn  to  fear  Yahwe,  his  God,  to  keep  all  the 
words  of  this  Law,  and  these  statutes,  to  do  them  " 
(17:18,  19). 

Josiah  put  the  new  features  of  the  Law  in  force, 
abolishing  all  shrines  save  only  that  in  Jerusalem,  at 
the  same  time  increasing  the  pomp  of  the  ceremonies 
there.  The  movement  had  its  favorable  and  its  un- 
favorable effects.  It  proved  the  most  effectual  blow 
yet  delivered  to  idolatry,  while  by  the  added  impor- 
tance which  it  gave  the  Jerusalem  priesthood  it  led  to 
the  development  of  the  hierarchy  and  to  the  extinction 
of  prophecy.  Jeremiah  looked  on  coldly,  balancing 
the  evil  against  the  good,  not  withholding  his  criticism, 
questioning  the  claims  of  the  new  book  (Jer.  7 :  21- 
23) ;  and  when  the  foolhardy  Josiah  fell  at  the  battle 
of  Megiddo  he  made  no  lament  for  him. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  priest 
Hilkiah  had  anything  to  do  with  the  writing  of  the 
book  found  in  the  temple,  or  that  he  had  any  knowl- 
edge of  how  it  came  there.  In  all  probability  it  was 
the  work  of  some  one  sometime  connected  with  the 
place,  who  wrote  it  secretly,  never  finishing  it,  and, 
while  awaiting  the  opportune  moment  for  its  publica- 
tion, died,  leaving  it  hid  away.     The  only  deception 


The  Development  of  Law  113 

practised  in  the  matter  lies  in  the  assumption  of  the 
writing  to  be  the  work  of  Moses,  —  a  kind  of  proceed- 
ing which,  while  not  justifiable  by  our  standards,  was 
resorted  to  without  scruple  by  Jewish  authors,  fully 
one-third  of  the  Bible  being  pseudonymous.  The 
publication  of  this  first  great  Law-book  took  place  in 
the  year  621  b.  c. 

Not  only  was  the  immediate  influence  of  this  pub- 
lication on  Jewish  polity  immense,  revolutionary  ;  it 
gave  an  impulse  to  religious  evolution  which  —  helped 
rather  than  hindered  by  the  captivity  —  led  in  the 
next  sixty  years  to  the  creation  of  another  Law-book, 
this  time  without  any  reference  to  Moses,  but  as  the 
word  of  Yahwe  to  Ezekiel  in  Babylonia.  It  is  brief, 
forming  only  the  last  nine  chapters  of  his  prophecy, 
is  not  intended  to  supersede,  but  only  to  supplement 
Deuteronomy,  which,  aiming  specially  at  the  central- 
ization of  the  worship  of  Yahw^  through  the  suppres- 
sion of  local  shrines,  gives  slight  direction  for  the 
conduct  of  that  worship.  Ezekiel  looked  forward  to 
the  restoration  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  according 
to  an  architectural  plan  of  his  own,  revealed  to  him 
in  a  vision,  and  on  the  same  authority  announced  the 
acceptable  order  of  sacrifices  to  be  offered  there. 
This  was  another  advance  in  the  direction  of  sacerdotal- 
ism.    But  the  final  movement  in  that  direction  was 


114       ^^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

taken  by  others.  The  Jewish  State  had  fallen,  and 
with  it  civil  law  as  represented  in  the  person  of  the 
king.  The  spirit  of  the  people  recouped  itself  by 
large  development  on  the  religious  side,  particularly 
with  reference  to  the  formalities  of  worship.  While 
a  band  of  poets  sang  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon  the 
last  great  strains  of  declining  prophecy,  minds  of 
another  type  were  busy  elaborating  the  ritual  for  the 
temple  on  the  lines  indicated  by  Ezekiel,  though  not 
in  his  frank  fashion  as  a  revelation  to  themselves. 
They  did  it  on  the  plan  of  the  making  of  Deuteronomy  ; 
that  is,  carried  it  back  and  credited  it  to  Moses.  Of 
the  progress  of  this  work,  and  of  the  hands  concerned 
in  it,  of  course  there  would  be  no  record. 

In  the  meantime  the  Babylonian  empire  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  Cyrus,  the  Persian  (537  b.  c).  His 
Zarathustran  training  had  taught  him  to  respect  all 
religions  ;  he  left  the  Babylonians  to  their  worship  of 
Merodach,  and  authorized  the  Jews  to  rebuild  their 
temple  to  "  the  God  of  heaven  "  at  Jerusalem.  A 
Jew  was  appointed  governor  of  the  province  of  Judea, 
who,  perhaps,  took  with  him  thither  some  of  the 
leading  persons  among  his  fellow-captives,  including 
possibly  Haggai  and  Zechariah.  At  all  events  we 
find  these  two  prophets  active  about  5  20,  stirring  the 
people  up  to  the  work  of  building  a  new  temple. 


^he  Development  of  Law  115 

Haggai,  then  an  old  man,  may  have  remembered  the 
former  temple,  destroyed  sixty-six  years  before ;  his 
prophecy,  which  is  of  the  shortest,  seems  to  have  been 
uttered  as  his  last  word.  It  is  pronounced  as  advice 
of  Yahw^  to  Zerubbabel,  the  governor,  urging  him  to 
build  the  temple,  and  promising  all  sorts  of  glorious 
things  when  once  the  building  is  up  and  the  service 
resumed.  The  writer  contents  himself  with  brief 
and  simple  speech,  saying  directly  what  he  means. 
Zechariah,  who  appears  at  the  same  time,  is  a  much 
more  ambitious  author,  giving  his  prophecy  in  the 
shape  of  visions  of  the  night,  filled  with  all  manner 
of  strange  symbols  which  are  explained  to  him  by  an 
angel.  They  mostly  represent  the  honors  to  be  con- 
ferred on  the  builders  of  the  second  temple,  and  the 
glory  which  the  finished  work  will  bring  to  Jerusalem. 
Only  the  first  eight  chapters  are  his,  and  toward  the 
end  he  lays  aside  visions  and  speaks  without  the  inter- 
vention of  an  angel,  rising  at  the  close  to  a  noble 
poem.  It  is  here  that  the  priest  discloses  the  true 
prophet  with  an  ethical  conception  of  religious  duty  : 

"  Thus  saith  Yahwe  of  hosts  : 
These  are  the  things  that  ye  shall  do  : 
Speak  ye  every  man  the  truth  to  his  neighbor; 
Judge  according  to  truth,  and  for  peace  in  your  gates  ; 
And  meditate  not  evil  against  one  another  in  your  hearts, 
And  love  not  a  false  oath  I 
For  all  these  are  things  which  I  hate,  saith  Yahw^." 


1 1 6        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Zechariah  also  glimpsed  the  coming  of  all  nations 
to  the  worship  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  his  last  word 
is  the  highest  that  had  as  yet  been  spoken  looking  in 
that  direction : 

"  Thus  saith  Yahw6  of  hosts  :  , 

It  shall  come  to  pass  that  many  nations  shall  come, 

And  the  inhabitants  of  many  cities ; 

And  the  inhabitants  of  one  city  shall  go  to  another,  saying, 

'  Let  us  go  speedily  to  pray  before  Yahw^, 

And  to  seek  Yahw^  of  hosts  I 

I  will  go  also.' 

Then  shall  come  many  nations  and  mighty  kingdoms 

To  seek  Yahw^  of  hosts  in  Jerusalem, 

And  to  pray  before  Yahwe. 

In  those  days  shall  ten  men  of  all  languages  of  the  nations  take  hold, 

They  shall  take  hold  of  the  skirt  of  him  that  is  a  Jew, 

Saying,  '  We  will  go  with  you, 

For  we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you,' " 

Through  the  efforts  of  these  men  the  temple  was 
rebuilt,  being  finished  and  dedicated  in  515  ;  but 
things  did  not  turn  out  at  all  according  to  their  ex- 
pectations. The  native  Jews,  that  is,  those  whose 
ancestors  had  not  been  taken  to  Babylonia,  were  a 
motley  set  from  having  had  for  seventy  years  little 
civic  order  among  them,  and  from  the  interruption 
of  the  national  worship  by  the  destruction  of  the 
temple.  They  had  mixed  with  the  Samaritans,  who 
appear  to  have  turned  in  to  help  in  the  building  of  the 
temple,  and  had  intermarried  to  some  extent  with  yet 
more  alien  tribes  round  about.     Under  these  circum- 


The  Development  of  Law  117 

stances  the  use  of  the  temple  when  it  was  built  — 
poor  specter  that  it  was  of  the  original  structure  — 
was  little  to  the  mind  of  the  strict  Jew. 

It  is  not  now  supposed  that  Cyrus  gave  full  permis- 
sion to  the  captives  to  return,  for  few  seem  to  have 
done  so  for  the  next  fifty  years.  Such  as  came  were 
not  likely  to  be  pleased  with  the  situation.  The 
habits  contracted  under  the  slack  regulations  that  had 
obtained  in  Judea,  the  slovenliness  of  the  temple 
service,  the  neglect  of  Sabbath  observance,  shocked 
the  new-comers  whose  priests  in  the  land  of  their 
captivity  had  indeed  "magnified  the  Law  and  made 
it  honorable,"  announcing  explicit  revelations  from 
Yahw^  concerning  the  fitting  mode  of  his  worship. 
Nehemiah,  a  Jew  who,  from  being  in  favor  at  the 
court  of  King  Artaxerxes,  obtained  some  concessions, 
came  with  quite  a  caravan  in  445,  and  succeeded  in 
rebuilding  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  But  the  opposition 
he  met  with,  and  the  general  unreadiness  of  the  Jews 
in  Judea  to  accept  the  reform  programme  of  the 
Babylonian  Jews,  led  him  shortly  to  return  to  Babylon 
to  decide  there  with  the  leaders  of  his  people  on  some 
more  concerted  measures  to  carry  out  the  scheme  he 
had  at  heart  of  effecting  a  thoroughgoing  reformation 
at  Jerusalem.  Delays  were  met  with,  not  unlikely 
arising  from  incompletion  of  the  literary  preparations. 


1 1 8        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

At  any  rate  it  was  not  till  the  year  433  that  he  arrived 
again  in  Jerusalem,  followed  soon  after  by  Ezra,*  a 
priest  who  is  called  "a  ready  scribe  of  the  Law  of 
Moses,"  and  who  is  represented  as  setting  out  on  this 
expedition  "with  the  Law  of  God  in  his  hand,"  as 
though  he  had  on  the  instant  added  to  it  the  last  pen- 
stroke.  Nehemiah,  as  governor,  appears  to  come  this 
time  clothed  with  a  more  complete  authority ;  we  hear 
of  no  more  opposition.  And  Ezra,  as  priest,  achieves 
an  entire  ascendancy.  It  begins  to  be  noised  about 
that  he  has  some  revelations  of  the  Law  made  to 
Moses  which  have  never  before  been  brought  to  light. 
The  first  day  of  the  seventh  month  is  at  hand,  and 
among  the  newly  discovered  commands  touching  the 
seventh  month  are  these :  "  The  first  day  of  the 
seventh  month  shall  be  a  solemn  rest  unto  you,  a 
memorial  of  blowing  of  trumpets,  a  holy  convocation." 
"  The  first  day  (of  the  seventh  month)  shall  be  a  holy 
convocation ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work.  Seven 
days  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto 
Yahw^ ;  on  the  eighth  day  shall  be  a  holy  convoca- 
tion "  (Lev.  23  ;  23  f.).  According  to  these  commands, 
new  to  the  ears  of  the  people,  a  great  assembly  con- 


*  Kuenen  and  many  others  give  an  earlier  date  for  the  arrival  of 
Ezra,  on  the  strength  of  Ez.  7 :  7  f.  The  date  there  stated  is  con- 
sidered erroneous  by  more  recent  authorities. 


'The  Bevelopment  of  Law  119 

vened  on  the  plateau  in  front  of  the  Water  Gate, 
where  all  preparations  were  made  by  Ezra  for  a  mem- 
orable occasion.  He  produced  what  he  called  "the 
Book  of  the  Law  of  Moses,"  and  proceeded  to  read 
it  to  the  people.  Evidently  it  was  something  which, 
in  large  part  at  least,  they  had  never  heard  before, 
and  were  not  expected  to  understand,  for  instructed 
Levites  were  posted  among  them  to  explain  as  the 
reading  went  on.  Nobody  seems  to  have  questioned 
the  assumption  of  the  reader  that  the  Law  as  he  read 
it  came  down  from  God  to  Moses,  and,  as  it  contained 
multitudinous  requirements  which  the  listeners  had 
never  kept,  —  never  heard  of,  in  fact,  —  they  were 
filled  with  consternation  and  terror.  All  around  in 
the  vast  auditory  people  were  in  tears  and  making 
outcries  of  fear  and  sorrow.  The  spectacle  touched 
the  leaders  to  the  heart,  and  they  felt  constrained  to 
quiet  the  excitement  they  had  raised.  The  reading 
was  suspended  till  the  next  day,  after  having  gone  on, 
we  are  told,  from  dawn  until  midday.  Observe,  the 
document  was  so  considerable  that  it  could  not  be 
read  through  in  that  time ;  but  there  was  no  need  of 
haste,  as  the  assemblies  were  to  continue  eight  con- 
secutive days.  So,  for  the  first  day  at  least,  the 
afternoon  was  given  up  to  festivity  lest  the  people 
should  become  frantic  with  excitement.     Every  day 


I20       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  reading  continued  in  the  same  manner  as  on  the 
first.  At  the  conclusion  on  the  eighth  day  the  whole 
matter  was  summed  up  as  to  its  bearing  on  the  New 
Israel,  and  on  the  twenty-fourth  day,  with  confession 
and  prayer,  priests  and  people  made  a  solemn  pledge 
to  keep  the  Law  which  they  had  heard. 

To  get  a  clear  glimpse  of  this  epoch-marking  scene 
one  should  study  the  original  account  of  it  in  the 
eighth  chapter  of  the  book  of  Nehemiah.  If  there 
is  some  resemblance  to  the  story  of  what  occurred  on 
the  first  publication  of  Deuteronomy  one  hundred 
and  eighty-nine  years  before,  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  exciting  cause  is  strikingly  similar.  At  all 
events  Nehemiah's  record  has  a  straightforward,  trust- 
worthy appearance ;  realistic  features  come  out  at 
every  turn.  Ezra's  wooden  pulpit,  made  expressly 
for  the  occasion ;  the  names  of  the  thirteen  priests 
supporting  him  in  the  proclamation,  so  many  on  his 
right  hand,  so  many  on  his  left;  the  names  of  the 
priests  who,  with  the  Levites,  went  through  the  crowd 
and  explained  the  Law  as  Ezra  read,  —  though  in 
themselves  uninteresting  facts,  in  the  connection  are 
highly  significant.  They  make  a  picture  of  the  reign 
of  the  priesthood.  Ezra  is  a  pontiff  whose  authority 
is  not  to  be  gainsaid.  What  he  gives  out  as  the  Law 
of  Moses,  however  novel  it  may  sound,  must  be  the 


^he  Development  of  Law  121 

genuine  article.  The  people,  men  and  women,  "all 
wept,"  we  are  told,  "  when  they  heard  the  words  of 
the  Law."  They  were  astonished  beyond  measure  to 
find  such  a  number  of  explicit  Mosaic  requirements 
in  existence  of  which  until  now  they  had  remained  in 
entire  ignorance.  Mention  is  directly  made  of  one  of 
these,  and  the  book  of  Nehemiah  naively  says  in 
regard  to  it :  *'  They  found  written  in  the  Law  which 
Yahwe  had  commanded  by  Moses,  that  the  children 
of  Israel  should  dwell  in  booths  during  the  feast  of 
the  seventh  month  *' ;  and  he  goes  on  to  tell  how  then 
and  there  this  regulation  was  carried  out  for  the  first 
time.  The  words  are :  "  Since  the  days  of  Joshua  the 
son  of  Nun  to  that  day  had  not  the  children  of  Israel 
done  so." 

The  Ezra  -  Nehemiah  narrative  —  these  two  little 
books  were  originally  one  —  leaves  no  room  for  doubt 
that  at  the  time  referred  to,  432  b.  c,  announcement 
was  made  of  a  very  large  accession  to  the  Mosaic  lit- 
erature. The  time  taken  in  the  reading  of  it,  with 
the  necessary  explanation,  the  greater  part  of  eight 
days  (and  we  must  remember  that  these  old-time  Jews, 
unlike  our  modern  church-goers,  were  up  and  at  their 
holy  tasks  with  the  sun),  indicates  the  mass  of  the 
material.  When  Deuteronomy  was  produced  and 
handed  to  the  courtier  Shaphan,  he  sat  down  and  read 


122        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

it  in  half  an  hour  or  so,  as,  in  its  original  form,  it  did 
not  exceed  in  length  an  ordinary  sermon ;  then  went 
with  it  to  the  king  and  read  it  over  to  him.  Making 
all  allowance  for  delays  of  explanation,  the  time  con- 
sumed in  Ezra's  reading  impHes  that  he  might  have 
had  before  him  the  whole  Hexateuch,  as  the  first  six 
books  of  the  Bible  are  called.  This  would  mean  that 
all  these  books,  with  the  single  exception  of  Deuteron- 
omy, were  compiled,  in  substantially  their  present  form, 
in  the  period  of  the  exile.  Compiled,  it  needs  to  say,  for 
undoubtedly  a  very  considerable  part  of  the  material, 
the  historical  and  legendary,  and  much  of  the  ethical 
portions,  existed  in  scattered  leaflets  which  had  circu- 
lated, some  of  them,  for  many  centuries.  But  there 
was  more  than  compilation ;  a  good  part  of  the 
matter  was  wholly  new.  The  substantial  additions 
originating  in  this  period  are  the  ceremonial  regula- 
tions which  make  up  a  part  of  Exodus  and  Numbers 
and  nearly  all  of  Leviticus.  The  shaping  of  the  whole 
into  our  present  Pentateuch  was  probably  the  work  of 
the  years  immediately  subsequent  to  the  scene  above 
described. 

How  much  of  a  hand  Ezra  had  in  writing  what  he 
read  to  the  people  it  is  impossible  to  say.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case,  the  real  origin  of  work  which  was 
to  be  thrown  back  upon  the  age  of  Moses  had  to  be 


^he  Development  of  Law  123 

kept  secret  ;  finding  out  the  authorship  would  ruin 
the  scheme.  While,  in  an  uncritical  age  like  that 
under  consideration,  the  circumstances  as  related  ex- 
cited no  suspicion  that  a  deception  was  being  prac- 
tised, the  very  narrative  itself  affords  to  the  modern 
reader  evidence  enough  that  such  was  the  case.  Thus 
the  conclusion  is  established  on  the  testimony  of 
unwilling  witnesses.  The  narrators  who  were  on  the 
ground,  and  the  redactors  through  whose  hands  the 
narratives  have  passed,  had  an  interest  in  not  reveal- 
ing the  bottom  facts.  Still,  what  they  have  said 
makes  these  facts  simply  inevitable.  The  conclusion 
is,  therefore,  doubly  sure. 

But  this  deception  is  not  to  be  morally  judged  by 
present  standards.  Every  claim  of  a  prophet  to  speak 
by  supernatural  direction  lacks  something,  as  we  should 
say,  of  absolute  sincerity.  The  Delphic  and  other 
oracles  were  veiled  impostures.  But  we  can  under- 
stand how  these  arts  in  the  hands  of  the  really  high- 
minded  were  made  to  serve  noble  ends,  how  with  them 
the  good  in  view  so  outweighed  all  other  considera- 
tions as  to  render  them  not  over-nice  in  the  choice  of 
means.  To  the  priests  of  the  exile,  the  estabhshment 
of  a  cultus  on  unshakable  authority  seemed  the  one 
thing  essential  for  the  rehabilitation  of  the  Jewish 
State,  the  one  aim  for  which  good  men  ought  to  strive. 


124       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

A  cultus  they  could  produce,  but  it  could  be  made  to 
stand  only  by  founding  it  on  the  authority  of  Moses. 
So  they  deemed  themselves  justified  in  representing 
the  completed  Law  as  a  deliverance  to  that  leader. 

The  great  output  of  the  exile  substantially  com- 
pletes the  development  of  law  in  Israel.  By  this  last 
most  voluminous  addition,  the  ceremonial  side  of  relig- 
ion received  an  elaboration  which  would  have  seemed 
to  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah  a  sad  departure  from  the  sim- 
plicity of  worship  dear  to  their  hearts,  though  in  fact 
it  is  only  such  a  growth  of  ritual  as,  evolving  on  differ- 
ent lines,  repeated  itself  early  in  Christianity  and  is 
seen  in  the  history  of  other  religions.  Law  neces- 
sarily concerns  itself  with  form,  and,  applied  to  relig- 
ion, tends  to  externalism.  A  higher  step  is  the  de- 
velopment of  the  sentiment  of  worship  through  ever 
kindling  and  reviving  spontaneous  expression.  In' this 
work  Israel  did,  as  we  shall  later  see,  a  far  diviner 
service. 

What  is  here  set  forth  is  only  to  mark  the  fact  that 
law  in  Israel  came  in  no  strange,  miraculous  fashion, 
but  by  orderly  steps  of  evolution,  from  custom  as  it 
stood  in  the  primitive  tribe,  through  some  few  spoken 
or  possibly  written  words  of  Moses ;  through  the  ac- 
cretions of  after  centuries  to  those  words,  shaping 
themselves  into  ever  more  important  booklets  from 


'The  Development  of  Law  125 

time  to  time,  of  which  there  remain  in  the  present 
Bible  the  dim  reminiscence  of  a  name,  as  the  "  Book 
of  the  Covenant,"  of  a  recurring  word,  as  "  Holiness,' 
of  a  particular  divine  appellation,  as  "  Elohim  *'  or 
"  Yahw^  "  ;  through  the  monumental  Law-book  of 
the  seventh  century,  which  gathered  into  itself  all  the 
best  regulations  that  before  had  been  pronounced, 
correcting  or  expanding  them  to  suit  the  needs  of  its 
time ;  through  Ezekiel's  Constitution  for  the  Church 
and  State  of  which  he  dreamed ;  on  to  the  final,  most 
imposing  construction,  wrought  by  unknown  hands  in 
the  exile,  completed  and  administered  by  Ezra.  If 
this  vast  accumulation  of  prescribed  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies is,  in  itself,  to  the  modern  reader,  an  unmitigated 
weariness,  it  is  of  interest  to  the  student  as  a  growth 
once  quick  with  life  in  every  part,  illustrative  of  the 
ways  of  the  spirit  building  up  for  itself  formal  ex- 
pressions. , 


CHAPTER  V. 
Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy. 

Triumph  of  Ezra's  scheme  —  Consequent  growth  of  exclusiveness, 
intolerance,  and  spiritual  pride  —  Two  literary  protests  appear 
in  Ruth  and  Jonah  —  Explication  of  the  frequent  non-fulfillment 
of  prophecy  —  Alexander  in  Asia  — Vassalage  to  Greece  begins, 
bringing  the  Jewish  mind  under  a  potent  Greek  influence  —  The 
book  of  Baruch  —  Chronicles ;  divergence  from  Kings  —  Com- 
plete and  most  elaborate  development  of  the  temple  service  — 
Psalm-writing  —  Ritual  enriched  by  adoption  of  foreign  cere- 
monies —  The  Purim  feast  —  Book  of  Esther  —  The  rise  of 
public  instruction  —  Synagogues  take  the  place  of  the  old  shrines 
abolished  by  Josiah  —  The  country  priest  becomes  a  school- 
master. 

WE  are  now  at  a  period  in  the  history  of  Israel 
when  the  astonishing  power  of  hterary  pro- 
ductiveness, which  began  to  show  itself  in  the 
eighth  century  and  culminated  during  the  captivity, 
has  subsided.  That  period  closed  in  an  effort  to 
gather  up  and  preserve  the  considerable  mass  of  writ- 
ings constituting  the  national  literature.  It  remains 
for  us  to  trace  the  narrowed  stream  of  this  Hterature 
a  few  centuries  further  on,  observing,  as  we  pass,  the 
elevation  of  most  of  these  writings,  down  to  a  certain 
time,  into  sacred  scriptures. 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     127 

Ezra's  triumph,  as  we  have  seen,  was  complete.  A 
religious  and  tribal  exclusiveness,  more  intense  than 
had  ever  been  known  before,  established  itself  at 
Jerusalem.  While  the  mighty  empires  of  the  East 
ignored  the  crushed  and  powerless  province  of  Judea, 
too  insignificant  in  its  overthrow  to  attract  further 
attention,  the  Jew,  under  the  leadership  of  the  priest- 
hood, set  up  for  himself  a  spiritual  power,  on  the  basis 
of  which  he  assumed  more  than  his  ancient  sense  of 
superiority  to  other  men.  The  notion  of  a  chosen,  a 
holy  people,  was  intensified,  and  a  spirit  of  intolerance 
awoke  strangely  incongruous  with  the  shattered  and 
humiliated  condition  of  the  State.  This  was,  how- 
ever, but  the  natural  outcome  of  the  idea,  now  fully 
developed,  that  Yahw^  was  the  only  God.  In  the 
earlier  days  when  the  existence  of  other  gods  for 
other  nations  was  freely  acknowledged,  there  was  the 
admission  also  that  those  gods  and  their  worshipers  ' 
had  certain  rights,  and  their  altars  were  even  erected 
side  by  side  with  those  of  Yahw^,  —  the  Jewish  people 
showing  then  something  of  the  liberality  which  after- 
ward marked  the  religious  life  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
But  the  instant  a  strict  monotheism  was  set  up, 
the  instant  it  began  to  be  affirmed  that  Yahw^  was 
the  only  God,  respect  for  other  faiths  was  necessarily 
restricted.    And  as  this  assertion  strengthened  and 


128        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

at  length  became  the  general  belief,  a  profound  con- 
tempt for  the  outside  world  of  idolaters  grew  up. 
Only  in  Israel  was  Yahw^  worshiped ;  all  the  rest  of 
mankind,  therefore,  were  living  in  neglect  of  the  one 
true  God,  who  would  assuredly  bring  them  to  naught. 
It  was  the  part  of  His  servants  to  separate  themselves 
entirely  from  these  idolaters  on  whom  divine  vengeance 
must  soon  or  late  fall.  Ezra  put  this  doctrine  in  prac- 
tice on  his  first  arrival  in  Jerusalem  by  insisting  in  the 
name  of  his  God  that  every  Jew  who  had  taken  a 
foreign  wife  should  at  once  part  company  with  her 
and  her  children.  Many  of  the  Jews  who  had  been 
left  behind  in  Judea  at  the  time  of  the  deportation  of 
the  more  important  families  to  Babylonia  had  formed 
this  forbidden  connection.  We  may  well  believe  that 
Ezra's  high-handed  proceeding  was  not  carried  out 
without  protest.  Four  men  are  mentioned  by  name 
as  having  demurred  to  the  edict  of  separation.*  But 
what  is  of  more  interest,  we  are  able  to  say  with  con- 
fidence that,  in  the  next  century,  disapproval  of  Ezra's 
course  took  literary  form  in  two  brief,  yet,  for  the 
time,  remarkable  books  that  have  come  down  to  us. 
One  of  these,  the  book  of  Ruth,  stands  in  the  Bible 


*  Jonathan  the  son  of  Asahel,  and  Jehaziah  the  son  of  Tikvah, 
opposed  this  matter,  and  Meshullam  and  Shabbathai  the  Levite  sup- 
ported them.  —  Ez.  lo  :  15. 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     129 

next  in  order  after  Judges,  and,  in  the  margin  of  the 
authorized  version,  bears  date  as  of  the  next  century 
after  the  migration  to  Canaan,  simply  because  the 
scene  is  laid  back  there.  But  scholars  long  since 
pointed  out  the  impossibility  of  this  date,  on  philolog- 
ical grounds  alone,  as  the  little  work  abounds  in  words 
that  were  not  coined  till  long  after  that  time.  There 
is  no  evidence  of  the  existence  of  Ruth  until  after 
Ezra's  time,  and  the  argument  of  the  book  fits  to  no 
period  so  well  as  that  immediately  following  his 
reformation,  to  which  it  may  be  read  as  a  natural 
protest.  The  pleasant  pastoral  is  well  known,  how 
Boaz,  a  man  of  high  repute  in  Israel,  took  a  Moabitish 
damsel  to  be  his  wife,  and  how  Yahw^  looked  on  the 
union  with  approval  and  made  the  foreign  wife  to  be, 
in  the  fourth  generation,  the  mother  of  David.  It  is 
impossible  to  tell  whether  this  incident  rests  upon 
actual  tradition  concerning  the  ancestry  of  David,  or 
was  invented  by  the  writer  to  suit  his  purpose.* 
However  it  may  be,  that  purpose  is  unmistakable. 
The  writer  means  to  show  that  it  is  a  perfectly  credit- 
able thing  to  take  a  wife  from  outside  the  nation  of 
Israel,  if  the  chance  of  getting  a  good  one  is  thereby 


*  Kuenen  thought  it  a  veritable  tradition,  and  that  it  is  supported 
by  the  statement  that  David,  when  pursued  by  Saul,  took  refuge  in 
Moab,  I.  ^.,  among  his  kindred. 


130       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

improved ;  and  his  art  lies  in  embodying  this  idea  in 
a  story  of  early  pastoral  life,  of  remarkable  sweetness, 
and  in  linking  his  characters  in  the  line  of  David, 
which  was  enough  to  endear  them  forever  to  the 
Jews. 

The  other  book  presumably  called  out  in  protest 
against  Ezra's  exclusiveness  must  have  appeared  about 
the  same  time.  It  is  the  little  story  of  Jonah  —  little 
or  bigy  as  one  prefers  to  speak.  Unfortunately,  the 
name  Jonah  always  suggests  a  whale,  and  this  bit  of 
writing  is  generally  passed  by  with  a  smile,  belittled 
by  the  grotesqueness  of  one  of  its  incidents.  This, 
read  as  matter  of  fact,  is  of  course  too  much  for  grav- 
ity ;  but  the  book  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  narrative  of 
facts  ;  it  is  really  a  dash  of  fiction,  written,  hke  Ruth, 
for  a  purpose.  The  little  story  is  formed  on  the 
broad  conception  that  God  cares  for  other  peoples  as 
well  as  for  Jews,  and  a  Jewish  prophet  is  taken  through 
a  series  of  mishaps  because  of  his  stubbornly  refusing 
to  recognize  so  obvious  a  truth.  The  art  of  the  writer, 
considering  the  habits  and  prejudices  of  the  people 
for  whom  he  wrote,  we  must  admire.  In  the  first 
place,  he  lays  the  scene  of  the  story  several  hundred 
years  back,  so  as  to  give  to  it  the  force  and  authority 
of  antiquity.  Jonah  is  directed  by  Yahw^  to  go  away 
to  Nineveh  and  proclaim  the  impending  destruction  of 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     1 3 1 

that  wicked  city ;  upon  which  he  exhibits  the  Jewish 
reluctance  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  heathen, 
and  seeks  by  flight  to  evade  the  performance  of  his 
duty.  But  Yahw^  follows  him  up,  and  leads  him 
through  such  strange  ways  that  he  finally  deems  it 
best  to  pocket  his  exclusive  holiness,  go  to  Nineveh, 
and  preach  to  the  polluted  idolaters.  This  he  does, 
and  with  an  effect  quite  beyond  his  expectations,  for 
the  people  are  smitten  with  penitence  for  their  sins, 
and  offer  to  do  whatever  the  prophet  of  Yahw6  may 
require.  But  he,  true  to  his  national  hatred  of  foreign- 
ers, persists  in  declaring  that  they  are  to  be  utterly 
destroyed.  Here  Yahwe  interferes  again,  and  over- 
rules this  hard  spirit,  showing  Himself  as  ready  to 
pardon  repentant  Nineveh  as  repentant  Jerusalem, 
and,  to  the  disgust  of  Jonah,  refuses  to  fulfill  the 
threat  of  destruction.  A  clearer  rebuke  of  Jewish 
narrowness,  as  revived  and  intensified  after  the  cap- 
tivity, could  hardly  have  been  set  forth. 

It  is  to  be  observed  also  that  this  leaflet  of  Jonah 
was  designed  to  meet  one  other  question  :  How  is  it 
that  the  word  of  Yahwe  by  his  prophets  so  often  fails 
of  fulfillment }  Even  the  greatest  of  them  had  made 
threats  and  promises  that  were  never  carried  out,  and 
this  had  become  very  embarrassing  to  the  reflecting 
observer,  as  under  the  Deuteronomic  law  such  failure 


13^       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

involved  the  condemnation  of  the  prophet.  The  plain 
declaration  is  :  **  When  a  prophet  speaketh  in  the  name 
of  Yahwe,  if  the  thing  follow  not  nor  come  to  pass, 
that  is  the  thing  which  Yahwe  hath  not  spoken,  but 
the  prophet  hath  spoken  it  presumptuously."  But 
under  such  a  sweeping  rule  every  prophet  must  occa- 
sionally be  found  wanting ;  the  most  illustrious  had 
not  been  clear-sighted  enough  to  avoid  erroneous  pre- 
dictions. The  author  of  this  little  story  endeavors  to 
get  over  the  difficulty  by  supposing  that  new  condi- 
tions necessitate  the  modification  of  consequences  to 
be  imposed.  Nineveh's  confessing  and  forsaking  her 
sins  puts  a  new  face  on  the  proposition.  "Thou,  O 
Yahw^,  art  a  merciful  and  gracious  God,  slow  to  anger 
and  of  great  kindness,  and  repentest  thee  of  the  evil 
(which  thou  hast  threatened  to  inflict)."  Thus  the 
prophetic  reputation  and  Yahwe's  reputation  could  be, 
the  writer  thought,  in  a  manner,  both  saved  at  once. 

While  at  this  distance  we  can  warmly  appreciate 
the  sentiment  of  these  two  books,  let  us  not  fall  into 
the  error  of  siding  against  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  their 
movement.  That  there  was  something  to  be  urged 
against  it,  the  writers  of  Ruth  and  Jonah  show ;  and 
yet  it  was  probably  the  only  course  to  save  the  Jewish 
State  from  total  disintegration.  In  political  and 
ecclesiastical  matters  it  is  not  the  good  of  the  whole 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     133 

world  that  is  uppermost,  but  the  good  of  a  nation  or 
of  a  sect ;  and  in  this  narrower  view  Ezra's  work 
needed  to  be  done.  It  was  an  essential  step  in  a 
course  of  development,  a  practical  application  of  ideas 
which  the  whole  period  of  captivity  had  conspired  to 
bring  to  the  front.  It  was  a  reformation,  in  that  it 
did  effect  a  change,  on  the  whole  for  the  better,  in  the 
religious  condition  of  the  Jews.  So  we  call  the  work 
of  Hezekiah  against  idolatry,  little  efficient  as  it  was, 
a  reformation ;  and  Josiah's  violent  revolutionary  move- 
ment is  freely  so  called.  But  we  must  have  a  care 
not  to  understand  too  much  by  this  word  in  these  con- 
nections. The  changes  brought  about  through  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  were  in  some  respects  a  gain,  in  others 
they  were  a  loss.  These  reformers  were  more  careful 
of  the  letter  than  of  the  spirit,  exalted  the  written 
word  at  the  expense  of  the  free  word,  giving  the  future 
to  the  scribe,  taking  it  away  from  the  prophet.  From 
their  day  Yahw^-worship  has  a  rigorous  form  ;  the 
temple  service,  by  its  exceeding  complexity,  absorbs  all 
attention ;  God  hardly  speaks  any  more  by  irregular, 
intermittent  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness ;  He  speaks 
by  the  book.  But  the  change  must  not  be  taken  as 
wholly  the  work  of  these  two  rather  unimportant  men  ; 
it  was  a  gradual  process  going  on  for  hundreds  of 
years ;  theirs  was  only  the  finishing  touch. 


134       "^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

While  Judaism  was  shaping  itself  in  the  little  prov- 
ince of  Judea,  the  great  world  was  again  changing 
hands.  Alexander,  having  the  mastery  of  Greece, 
found  himself  able  to  march  victoriously  to  the  end 
of  the  earth.  The  Persian  empire  went  down  before 
him,  and  Asia  for  the  first  time  fell  under  European 
dominion.  It  is  on  record  that  Alexander,  while 
besieging  Tyre,  demanded  the  submission  of  the 
Jews,  which  they  refused,  alleging  that  they  were 
pledged  to  Persia  by  the  oath  of  the  people  sworn 
to  Darius.  As  this  was  probably  the  sole  instance 
that  Alexander  met  with  in  Asia  of  a  tributary 
province  recognizing  the  binding  obligation  of  an 
oath  of  fealty  to  a  ruling  power,  and  as  the  Jews, 
seeing  how  things  were  going,  soon  after  sent  him 
their  submission,  he  forgave  their  first  refusal,  and 
ever  after  treated  them  with  consideration,  welcom- 
ing many  of  them  to  his  city  of  Alexandria,  where  in 
time  they  came  to  have  a  great  influence.  In  the 
year  323  b.  c.  Alexander  died,  and  his  kingdom,  as 
the  book  of  Daniel,  written  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  years  after,  has  it,  "  was  broken  and  divided 
toward  the  four  winds  of  heaven."  One  of  his 
generals,  Ptolemy,  acquired  control  of  Palestine,  and 
for  a  hundred  years  it  formed  part  of  the  Egyptian 
kingdom. 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     135 

Sometime  in  this  period  appears  to  have  been 
written  the  book  of  Baruch  —  an  attempt  to  resume 
the  prophetic  style.  The  writer  could  not  prophesy 
in  his  own  name,  nor  as  of  his  own  age ;  he  must 
date  back  into  the  time  when  there  were  prophets. 
So  he  assumes  to  write  in  the  name  of  Jeremiah's 
assistant  and  from  the  days  of  the  exile.  Aside  from 
this  pretense  of  being  somebody  he  was  not,  he  does 
credit  to  the  name  he  has  taken,  and,  considering 
that  the  work  is  older  than  some  books  that  have 
been  admitted,  we  are  surprised  that  Baruch  is  ex- 
cluded from  the  Old  Testament  canon.  At  the 
end  of  the  little  book  is  attached  a  so-called  Epistle 
of  Jeremiah,  which  is  perhaps  two  hundred  years 
younger. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  b.  c,  we 
must  place  the  books  of  Chronicles.  The  writer, 
who  also  edited  with  modifications  some  of  the  older 
books,  undertakes  here  a  new  version  of  Israel's 
career  from  the  days  of  Saul  down  to  the  exile,  going 
over  nearly  the  same  ground  as  the  books  of  Samuel 
and  Kings,  prefacing  the  whole  with  nine  wearisome 
chapters  of  genealogies  of  priests  and  kings,  carried 
back  to  Adam,  the  parts  linked  together  by  threads  of 
history  or  tradition.  The  work  of  the  Chronicler 
reflects  with  unintentional  fidelity  the  spirit  of  the 


136       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

time  in  which  it  was  written,  and  as  an  indirect  record 
of  religious  ideas  and  customs  then  current  (about 
300  B.  c.)  it  has  a  certain  value,  while  adding  nothing 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  earlier  time.  At  the  date  of 
this  writing  Jewish  conceptions  had  undergone  such 
a  change  under  the  priestly  influence  that  it  became 
desirable  to  have  the  history  of  the  early  kings  cast 
in  a  new  light  and  so  as  to  throw  the  priesthood  and 
the  temple  into  more  prominence.  This  recasting 
involved  many  contradictions  of  the  older  books,  which 
give  the  commentators  no  end  of  trouble.  But  the 
contradictions  of  previous  authorities  are  explained  by 
the  evident  purpose  of  the  writer  in  diverging  from 
them.  He  is  a  functionary  of  the  temple,  thoroughly 
imbued  with  the  priestly  spirit,  and  his  ruling  ambition 
in  writing  history  is  to  magnify  the  importance  of  the 
priestly  office.  So  he  represents  the  priesthood  in 
the  time  of  Solomon  as  having  the  same  functions  it 
had  after  Ezra.  The  temple  and  the  temple  service 
are  the  things  that  most  nearly  concern  him.  Him- 
self a  Levite,  he  dwells  with  especial  fondness  on 
what  glorifies  his  own  order.  Because  the  Northern 
kingdom  forsook  the  Jerusalem  temple  and  appointed 
priests  who  were  not  Levites,  he  drops  it  out  of  his 
record,  confining  himself  to  an  account  of  the  South- 
ern kingdom,  whereas  in  Kings  we  have  an  impartial 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     137 

report  of  both.  He  represents,  contrary  to  the  older 
record,  that  it  was  regarded,  in  the  days  of  the  kings, 
absolutely  unlawful  for  any  but  the  priests  to  offer 
sacrifices,  and  he  states  that,  Uzziah  venturing  to  do 
this  thing  himself,  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the 
priests,  Yahwe  interfered  and  smote  the  king  with 
leprosy  (II.  Chron.  26:  16-20).  The  Chronicler  is 
led  into  a  most  striking  divergence  from  the  previous 
record  by  a  desire,  natural  to  him  as  a  priest,  to  make 
the  new  Levitical  Law  —  comparatively  new,  not  yet 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  old  —  appear  of  high 
antiquity,  perfectly  familiar  to  Solomon  and  David.* 
David,  according  to  this  writer,  received  from  Yahwe 
the  plan  of  the  temple  to  be  constructed,  with  full 
details  of  the  order  of  service  to  be  conducted  in  it ; 
whereas,  in  the  previous  account,  the  temple  is  alto- 
gether Solomon's  idea.  In  the  third  century  David 
had  become  completely  idealized  as  the  hero-saint  and 
singer  of  Israel,  and  the  Chronicler  goes  to  all  lengths 
of  absurdity  in  following  out  this  distortion.  In  short, 
these  books  are  among  the  worst  examples  to  be  found 
of  history  made  in  furtherance  of  an  idea.  And  yet 
probably  we  ought  not  to  impeach  the  honesty  of  the 
writer.     He  appears  to  be  honest,  and  yet  he  is  not 


*  I.  Chron.  15:  2;  16:  37-40;  21  :  28-30.     Cf.  II.  Chron.  8:  12, 
3  with  I.  Kings  9:25. 


138        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

trustworthy.  That  is  to  say,  he  is  so  thoroughly 
imbued  with  the  Law  introduced  by  Ezra,  so  assured 
of  its  being  an  old  Law  coming  down  even  from 
Moses,  that  he  feels  authorized  to  assume  without 
evidence,  and  even  against  evidence,  its  observance  in 
the  glorious  days  of  the  monarchy.  The  writer  was 
a  very  busy  man  with  the  older  literature,  for,  besides 
producing  this  substitute  for  Samuel  and  Kings,  he 
re-wrote  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  apparently 
with  considerable  omissions,  and  left  upon  others  of 
the  old  books  traces  of  his  hand  and  of  the  time  in 
which  he  lived. 

Any  adequate  account  of  this  epoch,  from  400  to 
200  B.  c,  would  be  filled  to  weariness  with  description 
of  the  solemn  pomp  of  the  temple  service.  Scarce 
anywhere  or  ever  has  ritualism  had  such  absolute  sway. 
Foiled  in  every  political  undertaking,  and  the  glory  of 
original  prophecy  departed,  the  Jew  bent  his  energies 
to  the  development  of  a  gorgeous  and  infinitely  precise 
ceremonial.  True  to  his  old  propensity  for  crediting 
every  sacred  thing  to  a  remote  antiquity,  he  shut  his 
eyes  to  the  fact  that  this  was  a  new  growth,  and  still 
went  on  elaborating  the  ritual.  Singing  became  a 
great  feature,  and  the  genius  of  the  people  turned 
itself  to  the  production  of  sacred  songs.  In  the 
course  of  the  first  hundred  years  after  Ezra  the  larger 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     139 

number  of  the  psalms  were  written.*  It  was  the 
grand  epoch  of  religious  rhapsody.  Out  of  the  mass 
produced,  the  favorite  pieces  were  selected  for  use  in 
the  temple,  and  so  were  started  on  the  way  to  canon- 
icity.  Just  as  the  Wisdom  books  were  ascribed  to 
Solomon  and  the  legal  books  to  Moses,  these  hymns 
tended  to  take  the  name  of  David,  who  by  force  of 
tradition  was  the  typical  singer.  But,  as  we  now  see, 
the  occasion  calling  for  this  book  of  songs  did  not 
exist  till  Ezra  had  instituted  the  more  imposing 
temple  service.  Moreover,  their  substance  generally 
suits  only  to  the  circumstances  of  this  later  time. 

All  down  through  the  earlier  centuries  there  was 
conflict  between  prophets  and  people  over  the  matter 
of  worship.  The  people  were  ever  falling  into  idolatry, 
for  which  the  prophets  never  ceased  berating  them. 
The  prophetic  indignation  was  especially  strong  against 
religious  observances  of  foreign  extraction.  Since 
Ezra  all  is  changed.  We  hear  no  more  of  the  nation 
lapsing  into  the  service  of  false  gods,  no  more  vehe- 


*  The  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the  best  psalms  and 
the  Zarathustran  Gathas  (Psalm-books)  —  especially  the  Gathas 
Ahumavaiti  and  Ustavaiti  —  with  which  the  Jews  became  acquainted 
toward  the  close  of  the  exile,  leave  no  room  to  doubt  that  the 
impulse  to  this  form  of  writing  derived  directly  from  Persia.  The 
sublime  spiritual  conceptions  of  Zarathustra  (Zoroaster)  were  five 
hundred,  perhaps  a  thousand,  years  old  when  they  first  came  under 
Jewish  notice. 


140       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ment  assaults  upon  idolatry  as  a  Jewish  sin.  What 
is  the  meaning  of  this  ?  Is  the  age-long  tendency  to 
run  after  strange  gods  entirely  changed  ?  or  have  the 
new  leaders  come  to  tolerate  what  was  so  hateful  to 
the  old  prophets  ? 

The  solution  of  this  problem  appears  to  lie  in  the 
fact  that  there  was  a  sort  of  compromise ;  that  in  the 
revised  ritual  some  things  were  admitted  of  a  foreign 
type  for  which  the  people  had  shown  a  strong  predi- 
lection. Attractive  features  of  other  forms  of  wor- 
ship were  here  embodied  in  the  authorized  service  of 
Yahw^ ;  the  orthodox  worship  by  this  means  at  once 
enriching  its  ceremonial  and  making  sure  of  its  adher- 
ents, —  a  proceeding  identical  with  that  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  at  a  later  date.  It  matters  not,  thought 
the  priests,  —  more  accommodating  than  the  proph- 
ets, —  that  the  feast  of  the  New  Moon  has  been,  from 
time  immemorial,  a  heathen  celebration  of  the  re- 
appearance of  the  Moon-god ;  the  people  like  it ;  let 
it  become  a  part  of  the  Jewish  Law.  The  Sabbath- 
day  —  in  the  rituals  of  other  peoples,  "  Saturn's  day  " 
(Saturday)  —  naturally  connected  the  service  of  Saturn 
with  that  of  Yahw^.  In  the  original  conception  one 
of  these  gods  is  hardly  more  stern  and  inhuman  than 
the  other  ;  and  if  Yahw^  had  been  elevated  and  spirit- 
ualized in  the  course  of  the  centuries,  so,  at  least  in 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     141 

some  measure,  had  the  pagan  deity.  Something, 
therefore,  could  be,  and  doubtless  was,  transferred 
from  one  to  the  other  in  the  order  of  the  sabbath 
worship  finally  established  in  the  temple.  And  so  of 
other  observances  too  numerous  to  mention,  and,  be- 
sides, too  foreign  to  our  thought  to  have  any  general 
interest.  We  must,  however,  consider  one  other  fes- 
tival of  heathen  derivation,  as  we  shall  thus  arrive  at 
the  origin  of  another  book  of  the  Bible.  This  is  the 
Purim  feast,  so  called  nobody  knows  why,  the  word 
*'  Purim  "  —  of  Persian  or  Babylonian  origin  —  defy- 
ing all  efforts  to  arrive  at  its  significance  satisfactorily. 
The  feast  was,  no  doubt,  adopted  from  the  Persians, 
and  for  a  long  time  may  not  have  been  very  generally 
observed.  It  needed  some  distinctively  Jewish  motive 
in  its  support.  So  some  lover  of  this  feast  wrote  the 
book  of  Esther,  in  which  by  means  of  a  wholly  fan- 
ciful representation  he  undertakes  to  give  a  Jewish 
origin  to  Purim  (Est.  9  :  27  ff.).  The  story  runs  that 
Haman,  prime  minister  of  Ahasuerus  (Xerxes  I.),  out 
of  hatred  for  the  Jews  in  his  country  contrived  a  plot 
for  putting  them  all  to  death.  One  of  them,  Mordecai, 
gets  his  cousin  Esther,  who,  as  good  luck  would  have 
it,  is  the  Persian  queen,  wife  of  the  great  Xerxes,  to 
intercede  with  the  king  on  behalf  of  her  people.  As 
a  result  of  this  Haman  himself  comes  to  grief,  and 


142        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  Jews  obtain  permission  to  kill  their  enemies  to 
their  hearts'  content ;  a  privilege  they  avail  themselves 
of  on  a  grand  scale,  killing  75,000  the  first  day  and 
finishing  up  the  bloody  business  on  the  morrow ;  after 
which  they  have  a  great  feast  in  celebration  of  their 
rescue  and  of  the  discomfiture  of  their  enemies.* 
Thus  the  writer  gives  an  origin  to  the  Purim  feast 
calculated  to  make  it  acceptable  to  the  Jewish  mind. 
His  object  was  fully  accomplished ;  Purim  became  one 
of  the  most  popular  observances.  Among  the  Jews 
for  centuries  afterward  these  proverbs  were  current : 
"  The  temple  may  fail,  but  Purim  never."  "  The 
prophets  may  fail,  but  not  the  Megillah "  (as  they 
called  the  roll  on  which  Esther  was  written).  The 
success  of  the  book  is  the  more  remarkable  as  there 
is  nothing  in  it  of  a  strictly  religious  character,  no 
mention  of  deity,  no  reference  to  the  Jews  in  Pal- 
estine. However,  the  author  emphasizes  the  idea  that 
Jews  are  better  than  other  people,  and  this  doubtless 
commended  his  work.  Its  spirit  is  decidedly  antago- 
nistic to  that  of  Ruth  and  of  Jonah,  and  gratified  a 
class  not  pleased  with  those  writings. 

The  Chronicler's  work  is  typical  of  much  that  was 
done  in  this  period.     The  reign  of  the  ritual  had  been 


*  The  whole  story  is,  as  Noldeke  in  the  Encyc.  Biblica  character- 
izes it,  "  a  tissue  of  improbabilities  and  impossibilities." 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     143 

fatal  to  original  prophecy  and  weakened  the  motive 
to  any  original  work.  Men  who  in  previous  centuries 
would  have  been  authors  were  now  copyists  and  com- 
pilers. Attention  was  fixed  on  what  had  been  written, 
and  works  of  the  fathers  began  to  take  on  an  air  of 
sanctity.  The  Law  at  the  time  it  was  brought  out  by 
Ezra  assumed  an  authoritative  character,  was  accepted 
as  divine  revelation ;  and  around  this  as  a  nucleus 
other  writings  gradually  gathered  themselves.  The 
Law  always  retained  the  first  place  in  the  people's 
reverence,  because  of  its  association  with  Moses,  and 
because  its  mysterious  origin  seemed  to  place  its 
supernatural  character  beyond  question.  It  had  come 
in  ways  past  finding  out.  Other  books,  prophecies, 
histories,  psalms,  and  the  rest,  had  been  written  and 
preserved  by  more  natural  means,  and  therefore  took 
secondary  rank;  their  admission  to  the  sacred  list 
depended  on  the  popular  preference,  guided  by  the 
priests  and  scribes.  There  began  to  be  a  public 
opinion  in  these  high  matters.  For,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  however  the  rise  of  the  hierarchy  quenched 
the  prophetic  spirit,  which  in  any  case  could  have  been 
the  gift  of  only  a  few,  it  served  materially  in  bringing 
about  a  general  elevation  of  the  people.  A  somewhat 
educated  class,  displaced  from  the  conduct  of  worship 
at  the  country  altars,  became  instructors,  widely  dif- 


144       ^^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

fusing  such  knowledge  as  they  had.  To  the  hierarchy 
also  belongs  the  credit  of  establishing  the  synagogue, 
which  rose  on  the  ruins  of  the  sacrificial  altar  in  every 
village  and  hamlet,  —  an  institution  patterned  after 
which  later  came  the  Christian  house  of  worship.  To 
appreciate  the  significance  of  the  synagogue,  and  the 
great  change  preparatory  to  it,  call  to  mind  the  facts 
that  the  custom,  previous  to  Josiah,  had  been  to  wor- 
ship one  god  and  another  on  the  hill-tops  all  through 
the  country,  with  various  heathenish,  sometimes  cruel, 
most  revolting  rites ;  that  even  where  there  was  cel- 
ebrated only  the  worship  of  Yahw^,  the  worship  con- 
sisted wholly  of  sacrifices,  oblations,  and  other  pro- 
pitiatory offerings.  All  this  ritualistic  business  had 
been  transferred  to  Jerusalem,  and,  instead  of  altars 
of  sacrifice  around  the  country,  synagogues  were  built, 
and  a  means  of  education  was  thus  substituted  for  the 
"  high  places  "  which  in  earlier  centuries  had  been  the 
seats  of  a  more  or  less  superstitious,  often  disreputable 
worship.  In  the  synagogues  the  national  literature 
was  read  and  expounded  ;  whoever  could  instruct  his 
neighbor  spoke;  and  little  by  little  the  intelligence 
and  the  morality  of  the  scattered  communities  im- 
proved. In  the  meantime  the  priesthood  —  the  edu- 
cated and  educating  class,  too  numerous  to  be  occupied 
with  the  temple  functions  —  split  first  into  two  divis- 


Literary  Production  under  the  Hierarchy     145 

ions,  one  engaged  with  ritual  or  liturgical  matters,  the 
other  with  civil  and  moral  requirements.  The  latter, 
becoming  less  and  less  of  the  order  of  priests,  again 
divided,  part  devoting  themselves  to  the  study  of  the 
Law  and  to  the  expounding  of  the  scriptures,  forming 
the  class  known  in  the  New  Testament  as  **  lawyers," 
and  part,  leaning  more  in  the  direction  of  philosophy, 
drawn  to  the  contemplation  of  universal  moral  truth. 
These  last  were  the  sages,  the  lovers  of  wisdom,  who 
wrote  what  are  known  as  the  Wisdom  books.  These, 
though  not  all  admitted  to  the  canon,  form  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  them  we 
need  next  to  give  our  attention. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Wisdom  Literature. 

Writings  included  under  this  head  —  The  book  of  Job  —  Its  advanced 
conceptions  irreconcilable  with  a  high  antiquity  —  Incongruity 
of  the  prologue  with  what  follows  —  Teaching  of  the  poem  — 
Its  modem  tone  —  Its  divisions  —  Shows  the  hand  of  several 
writers  —  Probable  date  —  Wisdom  Psalms  —  Proverbs  —  Mod- 
ernity of  the  book  —  Parts  into  which  it  falls  —  Distinctive 
features  of  the  Wisdom  writers  —  Ecclesiastes  —  Its  pessimism, 
revolt  from  the  Greek  thought  of  immortality  —  Ecclesiasticus 
—  Source  from  which  Jesus  often  drew  —  Trend  of  Jewish 
thought  toward  ideas  later  enunciated  in  the  Gospel  — The 
Wisdom  of  Solomon  —  Its  clear  affirmation  of  immortality. 

THE  Jewish  Wisdom  Uterature  forms  a  class  by 
itself,  and  consists  of  writings  which  deal  with 
the  philosophy  of  life,  in  distinction  from  the 
Law  literature  which  provides  legal  regulations,  mostly 
touching  the  religious  ceremonial,  the  Prophetical  lit- 
erature, which  aims  mainly  at  correcting  the  idea  of 
God  and  of  His  service,  and  the  Liturgical  literature, 
such  as  most  of  the  Psalms,  designed  to  express  the 
religious  emotions.  This  division  includes  the  follow- 
ing, arranged  in  the  order  of  their  age  :  The  book  of 
Job ;  fifteen  or  twenty  Psalms  distinguished  by  their 


T!he  Wisdom  Literature  147 

didactic  or  proverbial  tone  ;  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes, 
Ecclesiasticus,  and  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon.  By  far 
the  most  important  of  these  writings  is  the  book  of 
Job. 

What  first  fixes  our  attention  in  Job  is  the  form, 
which  is  unique  in  the  scriptures,  the  body  of  it  being 
a  symposium,  or  rather  a  colloquy,  in  which  four  men, 
three  against  one,  make  each  nine  speeches,  the  whole 
divided  into  three  cycles  of  twelve  speeches  each.  It 
is  a  finely  finished  poem  with  prose  prologue  and 
epilogue.  But  the  substance  is  even  more  attractive 
than  the  form,  as  the  problems  discussed  —  the  uses 
of  adversity,  the  relation  of  suffering  to  the  deserts 
of  the  sufferer,  the  responsibility  of  God  for  the  evil 
in  His  world,  the  possibility  of  escape  from  unmerited 
pain  —  are  living  problems  still,  as  hard  to  dispose  of 
now  as  they  were  then.  Then,  too,  there  goes  into 
the  discussion,  along  with  a  truly  religious  earnestness, 
a  breadth  of  view,  an  audacity  of  skepticism,  which 
give  to  the  work  something  of  the  nature  of  a  philo- 
sophical inquiry.  Where  the  hero  of  the  colloquies 
can  come  to  no  solution  of  the  mystery  in  which  he  is 
involved,  he  confesses  his  failure  with  all  the  frank- 
ness of  a  modern  investigator.  These  are  features 
that  keep  up  the  freshness  of  the  book  and  make  it 
as  readable  now  as  it  was  the  day  it  was  written. 


148       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Distinctly  a  literary  work,  it  has  received  large  atten- 
tion from  literary  men ;  frankly  rational,  forceful, 
pungent,  it  draws  the  thoughtful  who  care  not  to  be 
lured  with  visions  or  cheered  with  fancies,  whose 
desire  is  to  see  things  as  they  really  are.  The  idea 
of  God  assumed  differs  widely  from  that  of  the  Law, 
of  the  histories,  or  even  of  the  prophets.  He  is  no 
longer  a  God  of  Hosts  battling  with  His  enemies,  deal- 
ing only  with  nations ;  He  is  a  universal  Power  and 
Providence,  apprehensible  to  the  individual,  supreme 
over  Nature  and  man,  revealed  in  least  and  in  greatest 
things,  in  might  irresistible,  in  essence  unsearchable. 
Human  experience  is  a  continual  disclosure  of  His 
will,  and  reflection  on  this  is  the  groundwork  of  relig- 
ious thought. 

Time  was  when  these  advanced  conceptions  did  not 
enter  into  the  determination  of  the  date  of  any  book 
propounding  them,  and  it  was  customary  to  give  to 
the  book  of  Job  a  very  high  antiquity.  The  Jews 
ascribed  the  writing  of  it  to  Moses,  and  the  dates  in 
the  margin  of  the  authorized  version  imply  that  he 
did  it  before  leaving  Egypt !  But  since  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  has  been  found  to  apply  to  the  formation 
of  scriptures  as  well  as  to  the  formation  of  worlds,  of 
plants,  and  of  animals,  —  things  everywhere,  spiritual 
as  well  as  material,  coming  about  by  an  orderly  devel- 


'The  Wisdom  Literature  149 

opment  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  from  the 
crude  to  the  elaborate,  —  any  such  notion  is  no  longer 
tenable.  And  in  fact  there  are  abundant  evidences  in 
the  book  itself  that  it  belongs  to  a  late  period  of 
Jewish  history,  evidences  overlooked  when  critics  were 
blinded  by  an  old  tradition. 

The  next  thing  the  observant  reader  marks  about 
this  book  is  that  the  prologue  does  not  fit  well  with 
what  follows.  In  the  prologue  Satan  is  introduced  as 
the  author  of  mischief,  and  he  enters  into  an  arrange- 
ment with  Yahw^  on  a  sort  of  wager  to  upset  the 
piety  of  Job  by  bringing  upon  him  a  succession  of 
troubles.  Yahw^  gives  him  a  free  hand  and  he  goes 
to  work.  But  in  the  colloquies  that  follow  over  Job's 
troubles  Satan  is  not  once  mentioned ;  there  is  no 
intimation  that  such  a  power  is  the  cause  of  them,  or 
that  such  a  power  exists.  This  fact  has  led  scholars 
to  think  that  the  prologue  originally  introduced  a  very 
different  piece  of  work,  now  lost ;  that  it  stands 
prefaced  to  this  book  because  popularly  attractive,  and 
is  meant  perhaps  to  be  understood  humorously  by  the 
more  competent,  since  wholly  ignored  in  the  poem. 
As  Satan  was  a  contribution  from  Persia  to  the  relig- 
ious thought  of  the  Jews,  this  little  part  may  date 
from  the  exile  or  the  years  immediately  subsequent. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Job  and  his  censorious 


150       l!he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

friends  are  actual  persons.  In  a  reflective  poem  of 
this  kind  the  characters  would  naturally  be  fictitious, 
and  the  fact  that  a  person  by  the  name  of  Job  is  else- 
where referred  to  has  no  bearing  on  the  question. 
The  makers  of  fiction  are  not  debarred  from  using 
names  that  belong  to  real  persons. 

The  plain  teaching  of  the  poem,  in  contravention 
of  the  prophetic  view,  is  that  the  good  man,  and  so 
presumably  the  good  nation,  may  be  brought  to  suffer 
the  most  grievous  affliction.  The  writer  makes  it  look 
irrational  to  infer  from  a  case  of  much  suffering  that 
there  has  been  much  sin,  and  irrational  for  a  good 
man  to  look  for  continued  prosperity  on  the  strength 
of  his  goodness.  Kuenen  thought  that  such  a  novel 
idea  in  Israel  could  only  have  been  prompted  by  a 
striking  instance  of  an  eminently  pious  man  coming 
to  grief.  Such  an  instance  is  found  in  the  overthrow 
and  death  of  Josiah,  after  he  had  instituted  his  great 
reformation  in  Judea ;  and  accordingly  Kuenen  placed 
the  composition  of  Job  in  the  time  just  before  the 
exile,  not  without  a  feeling  that  the  moment  had 
hardly  then  arrived  for  such  exalted  conceptions  of 
God  as  are  disclosed  in  this  book,  —  a  feeling  which 
in  later  critics  has  deepened  into  a  conviction.  Besides, 
the  book  is  not  to  be  thought  of  as  the  work  of  one 
man,  and  so,  as  a  whole,  it  can  hardly  be  credited  with 


The  Wisdom  Literature  151 

so  definite  a  purpose  as  was  once  thought.  It  grew, 
as  was  the  case  with  so  many  other  of  the  sacred 
writings,  by  accretions  from  several  hands,  and  would 
seem  to  have  required  for  its  composition  a  period  of 
calm  reflection  quite  unlike  that  immediately  preced- 
ing the  exile. 

But  the  wide  departure  in  the  thought  of  God,  and 
the  constant  assumption  of  an  individual  instead  of  a 
national  relation  to  Him,  are  what  make  it  impossible 
to  think  of  Job  as  having  been  written  by  contem- 
poraries of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel.  We  are  far  here 
from  the  prophetic  ideas  of  the  one  and  the  priestly 
ideas  of  the  other.  Job  looks  not  to  any  oracle  for  a 
solution  of  his  problem  ;  and  he  says  no  word  to 
indicate  that  he  set  any  store  by  the  ritual.  He 
reasons  and  ponders,  protests  and  pleads.  Such  a 
departure  from  the  old  attitude  was  not  taken  in  a 
day ;  it  implies  the  changed  circumstances,  spirit,  and 
outlook  which  only  centuries  could  have  brought  about. 
It  is  little  to  say  that  this  poem  is  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  nearer  to  us  than  the  book  of  Ezekiel. 
Ezra's  ritualistic  reformation  could  not  have  so  sub- 
sided in  less  than  a  hundred  years. 

Casual  observation  reveals  the  fact  that  the  book 
falls  into  several  divisions,  and  further  study  shows 
that  these  are  the  work  of  different  hands.     As  we 


152       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

have  already  seen,  the  prologue,  with  its  curious  rep- 
resentation of  Satan  having  an  agreeable  interview 
with  Yahw^,  belongs  apparently  to  an  older  writing, 
in  the  body  of  which  Satan  was  really  represented  as 
doing  something.  It  cannot,  however,  be  much  old^r, 
as  Satan  is  unknown  to  Jewish  thought  before  the 
exile.  In  the  next  thirty  chapters  (Noyes  divided 
them  better  into  nineteen)  we  have  the  poem  substan- 
tially as  it  stood  originally,  the  obvious  termination 
being  (31:  40),  "The  words  of  Job  are  ended." 
Another  speech  of  Job  (42  :  1-6),  after  that  statement, 
betrays  another  writer.  But  these  thirty  chapters  are 
apparently  the  work  of  two  poets,  the  first  for  some 
reason  halting  at  the  end  of  chapter  19.  His  is  the 
original  conception,  and  he,  perhaps,  symbolizes  in  his 
hero  the  suffering  people  of  Israel.  If  such  is  the 
case,  his  purpose  seems  to  be  "  to  suggest  that  right- 
eous Israel's  sufferings  were  an  honor,  as  they  showed 
a  disinterested  service  of  God"  (Cheyne).  The  con- 
tinuation (chaps.  20-31),  which  has  been  tampered 
with  and  disarranged,  presents  a  somewhat  different 
conception  of  the  hero.  His  tender  piety  gives  way 
to  a  spirit  of  criticism  and  high  defiance.  God  is  even 
accused  of  being  non-moral.  The  philosophical  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  a  religious  interpretation  of  life 
are  strongly  put,  but  no  solution  is  found.    We  are  as 


'The  Wisdom  Literature  153 

much  as  ever  in  the  dark  about  the  present  and  the 
future  when  we  are  told,  "The  words  of  Job  are 
ended." 

Later  on,  another  writer  adds  to  the  preceding  the 
speeches  of  Elihu,  who  is  brought  in  to  supplement 
the  lectures  of  Job's  other  friends,  as  it  seemed  not 
quite  right  that  the  audacious  Job  should  have  the 
last  word.  But  the  speeches  are  a  rather  feeble  re- 
statement of  what  had  been  said  before,  and  Job  may 
well  keep  silence. 

Finally,  yet  another  and  a  more  ambitious  writer 
conceives  the  idea  of  making  Yahwe  himself  answer 
Job,  and  answer  him  "  out  of  a  whirlwind."  It  is  a 
daring  piece  of  work,  and  has  been  called  "  the  great 
poetical  ornament  of  the  book."  But,  simmered  down 
to  a  line  of  prose,  Yahw^'s  justification  of  the  ways 
of  Providence  in  the  infliction  of  unmerited  pain  upon 
us  mortals  consists  in  his  unapproachable  greatness 
and  our  contemptible  ignorance  and  insignificance. 
It  is  probably  the  best  word  that  could  be  said  for 
Yahwe  from  the  Jewish  point  of  view,  though  not 
what  we  can  call  satisfactory.  Job,  overawed,  could 
say,  as  every  murmuring  sufferer  can  say : 

"  I  know  that  thou  canst  do  every  thing, 
And  that  no  purpose  of  thine  can  be  hindered. 
Who  is  he  that  darkeneth  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge  ? 


154       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Thus  have  I  uttered  what  I  understood  not ; 
Things  too  wonderful  for  me,  which  I  knew  not," 

And  this  writer  adds  the  epilogue,  which  certainly 
neither  of  the  two  makers  of  the  original  poem  would 
have  consented  to,  making  reparation  to  Job  in  kind 
for  all  that  he  had  lost,  so  that  he  was  doubly  richer 
than  at  first,  his  new  possessions  including  14,000 
sheep,  6000  camels,  1000  yoke  of  oxen,  and  1000  she- 
asses.  He  had  also  seven  sons  and  three  daughters. 
All  this  he  lived  to  enjoy  one  hundred  and  forty  years. 
Any  judge  of  fiction  must  say  that  the  work  loses 
sadly  by  this  most  unreaHstic  termination.  It  could 
have  come  to  such  an  end  only  through  several  persons 
independently  taking  a  hand  in  the  enterprise.  The 
completion  of  the  poem  in  its  present  form  may  be 
set  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century  b.  c. 

The  Wisdom  psalms  doubtless  came  out  of  the 
period  that  saw  the  close  of  the  book  of  Job ;  some 
of  them,  such  as  the  8th,  19th,  73d,  may  well  have 
been  written  by  one  or  another  of  the  authors  of  that 
book ;  as  the  49th  by  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes. 
The  book  of  Psalms  is  the  most  heterogeneous  of  the 
Bible  books,  as  a  book  of  hymns  which  should  include 
all  the  hymns  that  have  been  used  in  Christian  churches 
speaking  our  tongue  would  be  the  most  heterogeneous 
book   in   the  EngUsh   language ;    and  for  a  similar 


T'he  Wisdom  Literature  155 

reason,  for  the  book  of  Psalms  was  the  hymn-book  of 
the  temple  for  a  longer  time  than  Protestantism  has 
existed,  and  grew  just  as  our  hymn-books  grew. 

Proverbs  comes  up  as  the  next  book  of  the  Wisdom 
literature.  Jewish  tradition  ascribes  the  authorship 
to  Solomon,  as  it  attributes  the  Law  to  Moses  and  the 
bulk  of  the  Psalms  to  David.  Only  this  much  of  the 
tradition  is  valid  :  As  David,  being  a  singer,  may  have 
written  a  psalm  or  two  of  the  war-like,  vengeful  order ; 
as  Moses,  a  leader  and  master  of  men,  may  have 
written  a  few  simple  tribal  regulations ;  so  Solomon, 
who  seems  to  have  been  a  shrewd  observer  for  his  day, 
may  well  have  been  the  author  of  a  number  of  aphor- 
isms which,  after  passing  current  for  half  a  millennium 
or  more,  were  incorporated  by  the  wise  men  with  their 
own  sayings  in  this  book.  Many  hands,  we  may  be 
sure,  had  to  do  with  the  making  of  it,  for  this  was 
just  the  kind  of  a  book,  being  a  collection  for  the 
most  part  of  disconnected  maxims,  to  receive  an  incre- 
ment from  every  sagacious  reader.  It  nowhere  as- 
sumes, as  do  the  Law  and  the  prophets,  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  Yahw^ ;  it  speaks  humanly,  as  did  the  Greek 
philosophers,  as  any  writer  might  speak  to-day.  In- 
deed it  has  the  whole  air  of  a  modern  book,  sounds, 
as  has  been  said,  "as  though  it  might  have  been 
written  yesterday."     It  is  even  much  more  modern 


156       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

than  Job,  for  it  has  none  of  his  puzzling  over  insoluble 
problems,  his  outcries  against  a  personified  Fate ; 
more  modern  than  the  Psalms,  for  it  is  free  from  any 
emotional  disturbance.  Nothing  so  well  serves  to 
account  for  such  a  writing  as  the  influx  of  Greek 
thought  in  the  period  of  the  Greek  domination  of 
Palestine,  which  extended  from  333  to  217  b.  c.  At 
this  time  active-minded  Jews  had  become  cosmopolitan ; 
traveled  much,  lived  abroad,  and  drank  in  ideas  which 
were  current  in  the  great  world.  The  effect  of  such 
influences  is  signally  seen  in  comparing  Proverbs  with 
the  previous  literary  productions  of  this  people. 

The  book  —  aside  from  the  last  two  chapters,  which 
are  in  the  nature  of  an  appendix  —  falls  by  its  con- 
struction into  divisions,  indicating  that  it  may  have 
originally  appeared  in  five  separate  parts,  each,  per- 
haps, brought  out  by  a  different  editor.  If  so,  as  the 
appendix  is  avowedly  of  yet  other  authorship,  we  make 
out  at  least  six  "  wise  men  "  concerned  in  the  com- 
position and  compilation.  Three  names  are  attached, 
not  as  writers  but  as  sources  :  that  of  Solomon  at  the 
beginning,  "  The  Proverbs  of  Solomon,  son  of  David, 
king  of  Israel," —  though  this  apparently  was  intended 
to  cover  only  the  first  paragraph  (distich),  as  otherwise 
we  should  hardly  have  two  other  chapters  headed 
"  Proverbs  of  Solomon,"  —  and  those  of  Agur  and 


The  Wisdom  Literature  157 

Lemuel  in  the  last  two  chapters  ;  but  it  is  even  doubt- 
ful that  these  latter  are  names  of  persons.  So  the 
names  of  the  writers  are  actually  unrecoverable,  as  in 
fact  has  to  be  admitted  of  many  other  parts  of  the 
Bible.  And  that  this  should  be  the  case  was  appar- 
ently the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  writers.  Often  a 
writing  could  acquire  acceptance  only  by  taking  a 
name  that  did  not  belong  to  it. 

Among  the  wise  men  there  was  considerable  variety 
of  thought,  and  this  very  naturally,  as  their  illumina- 
tion was  not  in  any  old  book  or  formula,  but  in  their 
own  minds  and  hearts,  in  what  they  were  pleased  to 
call  Wisdom,  i.  e.y  the  intuition  of  the  well-instructed, 
well-disciplined  spirit.  Inevitably  this  wisdom  would 
take  as  many  forms  as  there  were  types  of  mind  among 
the  writers.  Thus  a  marked  difference  of  tone  is 
found  between  Job  and  Proverbs ;  Ecclesiastes  is 
written  from  still  another  point  of  view.  The  puzzled 
Job  calls  in  question  the  justice  of  God  in  His  dealing 
with  mankind  ;  the  proverb  writers  pass  that  problem 
by  and  set  themselves  to  coining  maxims  for  making 
the  best  of  every  situation  by  a  right  use  of  knowl- 
edge ;  the  Preacher,  as  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes 
calls  himself,  while  a  believer  in  God  and  in  upright- 
ness of  life,  goes  to  extremes  of  pessimistic  skepticism 
about  the  order  of  the  world,  finds  everything  vanity 


158       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

to  which  a  man  can  turn  his  hand  or  his  heart,  even 
wisdom  itself  going  into  the  same  category,  and  the 
best  advice  he  can  give  is  to  get  what  enjoyment  out 
of  life  one  can.  He  sees  nothing  beyond  this  present 
life,  in  which  he  doubtless  agreed  with  the  great 
prophets,  with  this  difference,  that  they  said  nothing 
about  it,  the  theory  of  immortality  not  having  been 
broached  in  Israel  in  their  day.  Before  the  writing 
of  Ecclesiastes,  however,  that  theory  had  come  over 
from  Greece  and  had  gained  some  adhesions.  As  it 
seems  nonsensical  to  this  writer,  he  takes  ground 
against  it ;  one  fate,  he  declares,  comes  to  man  and 
beast,  they  have  both  one  breath,  both  are  of  the  dust, 
and  both  turn  to  dust  again.  Any  hope  of  revival,  of 
escape  from  extermination,  is  illusion,  vanity.  All 
this  has  a  gloomy,  dispiriting  sound  now,  and  one 
wonders  how  Ecclesiastes  struck  people  when  first 
published.  We  know  that  the  book  was  not  readily 
received  into  the  sacred  canon,  that  in  the  early  coun- 
cils strenuous  objections  were  made  to  it ;  and  one 
cannot  but  be  surprised  that  when  once  question  was 
raised  in  regard  to  its  claims  it  should  have  been  able 
to  acquire  and  hold  its  place.  But  by  that  time  tra- 
dition had  given  the  authorship  to  Solomon,  and  the 
royal  name  carried  much  weight.  Then,  there  were 
some  minds  among  the  influential  who  could  not  but 


T^he  Wisdom  Literature  159 

feel  a  genuine  respect  for  a  writer  who  so  fearlessly 
expressed  his  honest  opinions.  The  book  represents 
the  extreme  of  skepticism  among  the  Jewish  sages,  the 
ultimate  in  which  the  doctrine  of  guidance  by  wisdom, 
or,  as  we  should  say,  by  culture,  eventuates.  It  orig- 
inated in  the  same  period  with  the  other  Wisdom  books 
already  considered,  probably  following  shortly  after 
Proverbs. 

All  the  Wisdom  literature  so  far  considered  found 
place  in  the  canon ;  there  remain  two  other  writings 
which  barely  failed  of  admission,  one  apparently  be- 
cause it  did  not  set  up  the  claim  of  being  by  an  ancient 
worthy,  the  other  because  it  appeared  after  the  canon 
was  practically  closed.  These  are  Ecclesiasticus,  and 
the  Book  of  Wisdom  or,  as  the  latter  is  generally  called, 
The  Wisdom  of  Solomon.  Ecclesiasticus  is  the  work 
of  Jesus  ben  Sira,  a  learned,  traveled  Jew  of  Palestine 
who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  b.  c. 
A  grandson  of  his  translated  it  into  Greek  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Greek-speaking  Jews  of  Alexandria,  and 
from  this  it  has  gone  into  other  languages.  Only 
within  the  last  few  years  has  discovery  been  made  of 
fragments  of  the  Hebrew  text.  These  scraps,  all  to- 
gether, now  cover  about  two-thirds  of  the  book,  and  are 
prized  as  a  rather  remarkable  find.  They  are  about  a 
thousand  years  old,  and  give  us,  doubtless  with  fair  fidel- 


i6o       T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ity,  the  words  of  the  author  as  they  came  from  his  hand 
about  1 80  B.  c.  That  was  the  period  when  the  canon 
was  closing,  and  only  by  rare  chance  could  a  writing 
then  be  admitted ;  but  one  cannot  but  think  that  a  grave 
mistake  was  made  in  letting  Ecclesiastes  in  and  shut- 
ting Ecclesiasticus  out,  the  latter  being  unmistakably 
the  nobler  work.  It  is  truer  to  the  line  of  Hebrew 
development,  more  bracing,  more  devout,  replete  with 
a  higher  wisdom.  Though  classed  among  the  sages, 
the  author  shows  none  of  the  indifference  of  the 
previous  Wisdom  writers  to  the  Law  and  the  Liturgy. 
He  loves  them  both,  and  in  praising  wisdom  he  is 
pleased  to  acknowledge  that  it  comes  through  these. 
Wisdom  is  contained,  he  says, 

♦'  In  the  book  of  the  covenant  of  God  most  high, 
In  the  Law  which  Moses  commanded 
For  a  heritage  unto  the  children  of  Israel. 
If  thou  desirest  wisdom,  keep  the  commandments, 
For  the  fear  of  Yahwe  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom." 

But  this  wisdom  does  not  consist  in  punctilious  per- 
formance of  ceremonies,  nor  in  effusive  displays  of 
feeling,  but  in  knowledge  of  what  is  true  and  right, 
for  this  author  is  first  of  all  a  sage  and  holds  with  the 
sages  in  this.     The  burden  of  his  exhortation  is  : 

*'  Gather  instruction  from  thy  youth  up ; 
Set  not  thy  heart  upon  thy  goods ; 
Strive  for  the  truth  unto  death ; 


'The  Wisdom  Literature  i6i 

Search  and  seek,  and  it  shall  be  made  known  to  thee. 

Wisdom  exalteth  her  sons 

And  taketh  hold  of  them  that  seek  her. 

He  that  loveth  her  loveth  life ; 

And  they  that  seek  to  her  early  shall  be  filled  with  gladness." 

We  are  the  more  drawn  to  this  book  because  there 
is  good  reason  to  think  that  another  Jesus,  of  whom 
we  have  heard  more,  suffused  his  spirit  with  it.  The 
full  evidence  of  this  is  not  to  be  set  forth  here,  but  a 
few  of  the  parallelisms  found  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  may  fitly  be  noted. 

"  Blessed  are  the  meek,"  said  Jesus ;  Ben  Sira  had 
said  :  **  The  Lord  is  glorified  of  them  that  are  lowly." 

Jesus  said  :  "  Agree  with  thy  adversary  quickly,  lest 
haply  he  deliver  thee  to  the  judge,"  etc.  Ben  Sira 
said :  **  Contend  not  with  a  mighty  man,  lest  haply 
thou  fall  into  his  hands." 

Jesus  said  :  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart."  Ben 
Sira's  words  are  :  "  Blessed  is  he  whose  soul  doth  not 
condemn  him." 

Jesus  speaks  of  the  divine  forgiveness  and  of  the 
readiness  of  the  Father  in  heaven  to  "  give  good  things 
to  them  that  ask  him."  Ben  Sira  exclaims :  "How 
great  is  the  mercy  of  the  Lord,  and  his  forgiveness 
to  them  that  turn  unto  him  !  " 

"  Swear  not  at  all,"  says  Jesus  ;  Ben  Sira  said  : 
"  Accustom  not  thy  mouth  to  an  oath." 


1 62        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

"  Lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,"  said 
Jesus.  The  precept  of  Ben  Sira  is  :  "  Bestow  thy 
treasure  according  to  the  commandments  of  the  Most 
High,  and  it  shall  profit  thee  more  than  gold." 

Jesus  put  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  and  the  doing 
of  a  human  duty  before  all  sacrifices  made  in  the 
temple,  and  said :  *'  If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar, 
and  there  remember  that  thy  brother  hath  aught 
against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar  and 
go  away ;  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother."  The 
not  less  noble  words  of  Ben  Sira  are  : 

"  He  that  keepeth  the  Law  maketh  off ermgs ; 
He  that  taketh  heed  to  the  commandments  sacrificeth  a  peace- 
offering. 
He  that  requiteth  a  good  turn  off ereth  fine  flour ; 
And  he  that  giveth  alms  sacrificeth  a  thank-offering. 
To  depart  from  wickedness  is  a  thing  pleasing  to  the  Lord  ; 
To  turn  away  from  unrighteousness  is  a  propitiation."* 

One  cannot  intelligently  read  this  book  and  the 
book  of  Proverbs  without  being  impressed  with  the 
progress  of  Jewish  thought  toward  the  New  Testament 
standard.  We  see  a  notable  evolution  of  ethical  ideas, 
and  a  growing  disposition  to  base  religion  distinctly 
upon  these  ideas.  There  is  clear  recognition  of  intel- 
lectual  values,    knowledge   is   extolled  alongside   of 


*  Ecclus.  3  :  20,  8  :  I,   14:  2,  17  :  29,  23:  9,  29:  1 1,  35  :  1-3. 


^he  PVisdom  Literature  163 

virtue.  It  is  particularly  worthy  of  note  in  this  con- 
nection that  there  were  schools  in  all  parts  of  Judea 
in  those  days  in  which  such  mental  training  was  given 
as  the  age  afforded.  In  the  more  advanced  of  these 
schools  the  Greek  language  must  have  been  taught, 
opening  up  to  students  the  treasures  of  Greek  philos- 
ophy. More  particularly  was  wide  acquaintance  with 
the  world's  thought  offered  to  the  considerable  colony 
of  Jews  resident  in  Alexandria,  then  a  seat  of  great 
mental  as  well  as  commercial  activity. 

One  of  these  Alexandrian  Jews,  apparently  early  in 
the  first  century  b.  c,  wrote  the  last  piece  of  Wisdom 
literature  that  we  have  to  consider.  It  is  called  The 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  though  written  in  Greek,  a  lan- 
guage of  which  Solomon  may  never  have  heard.  But 
this  title,  together  with  a  real  ability  in  the  writing, 
gave  it  great  vogue  in  the  early  Christian  centuries. 
It  was  clothed  with  full  canonicity  by  the  Council  of 
Trent,  and  is  still  accepted  as  an  inspired  scripture  by 
the  Roman  Church,  though  relegated  by  Protestants 
to  the  rank  of  apocrypha.  Its  fortune  was  to  appear 
a  little  too  late  to  secure  a  firm  footing  among  the 
Sacred  Writings ;  still  it  seems  to  have  passed  muster 
very  well  for  a  time,  and  there  are  rather  striking 
evidences  of  its  use  by  New  Testament  writers.  Thus, 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  Jesus  is  made  to  say :  **  If  I 


164       'J'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

have  told  you  earthly  things  and  ye  believe  not,  how 
shall  ye  believe  if  I  tell  you  heavenly  things?"  — 
which  seems  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  Wisdom  9:16: 
"  Hardly  do  we  divine  the  things  that  are  on  earth ; 
the  things  that  are  in  the  heavens,  who  ever  yet  traced 
out?"  In  Acts  we  read:  ''The  times  of  ignorance 
God  indeed  overlooked  ;  but  now  commandeth  all 
men  everywhere  to  repent."  The  parallel  in  Wis- 
dom is  (i  I  :  23) :  "  Thou  hast  mercy  on  all  men  ;  thou 
overlookest  the  sins  of  men  to  the  end  that  they  may 
repent."  The  whole  symbolism  of  "the  armor  of 
God  "  in  Ephesians  appears  to  come  from  this  source, 
where  we  have  (5:17  f.)  the  "complete  armor,"  the 
"  breastplate  of  righteousness,"  the  **  helmet  of  judg- 
ment unfeigned,"  the  "  shield  of  holiness,"  and  the 
"sword"  of  a  quickened  spirit.  Many  other  phrases 
of  the  book  reappear  here  and  there,  of  which  note 
the  unusual  appellation,  "God,  the  Savior  of  all" 
(I.  Tim.  4  :   10). 

The  writer,  from  his  foreign  residence,  is  much 
more  decidedly  influenced  by  Greek  thought  than  his 
predecessors  of  the  Wisdom  school,  all  of  whom,  with 
the  probable  exception  of  Job,  are  touched  by  it. 
This  comes  out  in  his  laudation  of  the  virtues  of  mod- 
eration, practical  sense,  justice,  and  fortitude ;  in  his 
assurance  of  immortality  and  his  notion  of  the  retrib- 


'The  Wisdom  Literature  165 

utory  character  of  the  Hfe  beyond.  On  these  latter 
points  he  made  a  far  departure  from  traditional  Jewish 
thought,  which  is  marked  by  a  singular  reticence.  It 
is  a  startling  reflection  that  exclusion  of  this  book 
from  the  canon  left  the  Old  Testament  without  the 
word  "immortality"  or  the  word  "immortal."  Chris- 
tians are  wont  to  meet  this  fact  with  the  claim  that 
immortality  is  brought  to  light  in  the  Gospel ;  but  the 
Gospel  hardly  matches  the  affirmations  of  this  book. 
"God  created  man  to  be  immortal,"  it  says,  *^and 
made  him  to  be  an  image  of  his  own  eternity."  To 
be  sure,  affirmations  are  not  proofs  ;  but  in  default  of 
proofs,  there  are  times  when  we  welcome  the  unsup- 
ported affirmation.  The  poverty  of  the  canonical 
scriptures  in  bold  and  bracing  assurances  of  a  future 
life  is  never  quite  so  apparent  as  when  one  goes 
searching  for  suitable  selections  to  use  in  a  funeral 
service.  Then,  if  there  be  at  all  felt  the  need  of 
harking  back  to  antiquity,  the  Book  of  Wisdom  is 
a  recourse ;  and  that  not  merely  because  of  the 
stress  it  puts  on  the  idea  of  personal  immortality,  but 
mainly  because  the  writer  went  further,  anticipating 
Emerson's  well-known  lines,  — 

*'  What  is  excellent, 
As  God  lives,  is  permanent,"  — 

with  the  great  saying,  "Righteousness  is  immortal." 


1 66       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

But,  Greek  as  he  is  in  his  thought,  he  is  far  from 
admitting  the  fact.  On  the  contrary,  he  will  be  first 
and  last  a  Jew,  even  at  the  cost  of  being  narrow  and 
bigoted.  The  Jews  are  God's  chosen  people ;  other 
races  are  of  little  account ;  some  of  them,  as  the 
Egyptians,  contemptible,  fit  only  to  be  destroyed. 
The  doctrine  of  a  universal  brotherhood  is  not  yet, 
though  there  are  signs  of  its  approach ;  and  nothing 
in  Israel  did  so  much  directly  to  further  its  advent  as 
did  the  Wisdom  literature. 


CHAPTER   VII. 
Other  Post-Exilic  Writings. 

Malachi  —  Obadiah  —  Joel  —  Canticles  —  Tobit  —  Persecution  of 
the  Jews  by  Antiochus  —  The  Maccabasan  revolt  —  Daniel  — 
Key  to  the  predictions  —  The  fabulous  narrative  —  Anticipation 
of  New  Testament  doctrine  —  I.  Maccabees  —  Enoch  —  Other 
apocryphal  books  —  Universalistic  tendency,  betokening  the 
Christian  policy  of  propagandism. 

CONSIDERATION  of  the  Wisdom  literature  has 
carried  us  far  down  the  stream  of  time,  almost 
to  the  Christian  era ;  we  must  now  retrace  our 
course  to  gather  up  some  of  the  literary  drift  scattered 
along  the  banks  in  the  latter  centuries  of  the  Jewish 
State.  The  last  Old  Testament  book  in  our  Bible  is 
Malachi,  bearing  a  marginal  date  397  e.g.,  —  which  is 
not  far  wrong,  though  the  time  cannot  be  so  definitely 
stated  as  those  figures  would  indicate,  —  and  this  was 
formerly  supposed  to  be  the  youngest  of  the  collection. 
But  we  have  already  considered  ten  Old  Testament 
books  which  are  now  believed  to  be  younger,  and  there 
are  others  still  to  be  mentioned.  Prophecy  had  long 
been  dying  out,  but  this,  as  we  shall  see,  was  not  even 
the  last  of  the  prophecies,  though  nearly  so. 

Of  the  writer  we  know  nothing  whatever;   it  is 


1 68        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

even  uncertain  that  the  word  Malachi,  which  means 
"messenger,"  was  the  name  of  a  person.  His  book 
is  only  a  leaflet ;  an  expert  type-writer  could  copy  it 
all  in  twenty  minutes.  He  takes  the  censorious  tone 
of  the  early  prophets  towards  priests  and  people,  from 
which  we  infer  that  the  Ezra-Nehemiah  reform,  after 
being  some  forty  years  in  operation,  left  much  yet  to 
be  desired.  The  priests  winked  at  the  trickery  of  the 
people  in  bringing  the  refuse  of  their  flocks  and  herds, 
the  sick  and  lame,  to  the  altar  as  good  enough  for 
Yahw^,  showing  skepticism  of  his  omniscience ;  they 
were  also  too  much  inclined  to  adopt  the  ceremonies 
of  other  cults.  He  represents  Yahwe  ready  to  turn 
away  from  such  worshipers,  and  makes  Him  say  that 
other  nations  will  serve  Him  better.  The  passage  in 
which  this  outburst  is  made  is  by  far  the  broadest, 
clearest  affirmation  of  the  universality  of  the  Hebrew 
religion  to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  as 
follows  ( I  :  1 1 ) : 

"  From  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same 
My  name  shall  be  great  among  the  nations. 
And  in  every  place  shall  incense  be  offered  to  my  name, 
And  a  pure  offering ; 

For  my  name  shall  be  great  among  the  nations, 
Saith  Yahwe  of  hosts." 

Such  an  utterance  seems  the  more  remarkable  when 
we  consider  the  strict  Judaism  of  the  writer.     But 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  169 

we  need  not  wonder  at  any  narrowness,  for  even  the 
breadth  of  Jesus'  reported  declaration  to  the  Samaritan 
woman  is  coupled  with  the  reservation,  "  salvation  is 
of  the  Jews." 

We  may  notice  here  the  little  book  of  Obadiah, 
which^  small  as  it  is,  consisting  of  only  twenty-one 
verses,  has  been  the  subject  of  much  comment  and 
controversy.  Thus,  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica  the 
article  on  Obadiah  is  of  more  than  ten  times  the  length 
of  Obadiah  itself.  Of  the  author  nothing  whatever 
is  known,  and  the  great  contention  has  been  concern- 
ing the  time  in  which  he  lived.  The  fact  that  seven 
of  his  twenty-one  verses  (1-6,  8)  are  identical,  almost 
word  for  word,  with  verses  in  Jeremiah  49,  is  a  diffi- 
culty that  has  been  hard  to  get  over  or  explain.  One 
book  must  have  borrowed ;  but  which }  If  the  writer 
of  that  49th  chapter  borrowed  from  Obadiah,  then  of 
course  Obadiah  preceded  him.  Then  the  question 
comes  up  whether  that  chapter  is  Jeremiah's  own,  or 
by  some  one  of  the  many  who  added  their  words  to 
his.  Nothing  very  definite  as  to  date  can  be  made 
out.  Only  this  is  to  be  said  :  the  writing,  short  as  it 
is,  consists  of  two  parts,  the  first,  ending  with  the 
1 6th  verse,  announcing  a  judgment  upon  Edom,  and 
giving  the  ground  of  it,  namely,  the  assistance  Edom 
rendered  Babylon  long  before  in  destroying  Jerusalem. 


ijo       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

In  the  second  part  the  judgment  is  a  thing  long  passed, 
and  another  situation  has  arisen.  The  best  critics  can 
say  no  more  of  the  date  of  the  first  part  than  that  it 
must  be  some  time  between  588  and  312.  The  second 
part  is  later. 

Another  writing  presenting  equal  difficulties  is  Joel. 
Of  the  prophet  of  that  name  we  know  nothing,  and  the 
book  has  none  of  the  distinct  references  to  contempo- 
rary persons  and  events  which  with  many  other  books 
serve  to  fix  the  date  ;  so  there  is  wide  discrepancy  of 
opinion  in  the  matter.  It  has  even  been  held  to  be 
the  oldest  of  the  prophetic  writings,  antedating  Amos 
and  Hosea ;  on  the  other  hand  recent  investigators 
think  it  came  out  of  the  Persian  period,  four  hundred 
years  later.  The  absence  of  any  complaint  of  idolatry 
indicates  that  idolatry  had  ceased  among  the  Jews 
in  the  writer's  time,  and  this  did  not  come  about  till 
after  the  exile.  He  also  speaks  of  the  Greeks  as  a 
prominent  people,  which  strongly  points  to  the  later 
date. 

The  work  is  a  finished  poem  of  three  pictures. 
The  first  is  a  terrible  desolation,  the  result  of  God's 
judgments  upon  the  land  for  the  sins  of  its  people ; 
the  next  shows  Yahwe  leading  his  people  to  repentance 
and  to  good  works ;  the  last  represents  the  glorious 
rewards  of  obedience  and  well-doing.     Several  of  the 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  171 

choice  passages  are  familiar  on  account  of  their  exceed- 
ing beauty.     Every  ear  recognizes, 

"  Rend  your  hearts,  and  not  your  garments, 
And  turn  to  Yahwe,  your  God, 
For  he  is  gracious  and  merciful, 
Slow  to  anger,  and  of  great  kindness, 
And  repenteth  of  a  threatened  evil." 

Here,  too,  is  the  passage  said  to  have  been  quoted  by 
Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  painting  the  marvels 
that  should  occur  later  on  when  God  should  pour  out 
his  spirit  upon  all  flesh.  And  hark  to  these  musical 
words  falling  in  near  the  close  : 

"  In  that  day  shall  the  mountains  drop  down  new  wine. 
And  the  hills  shall  flow  with  milk, 
And  all  the  streams  of  Judah  shall  flow  with  water. 
A  fountain  shall  come  forth  from  the  house  of  Yahwe 
And  shall  water  the  valley  of  acacias." 

Withal,  the  prophet  is  a  pronounced  ritualist,  and  calls 
for  meat-offerings  and  drink-offerings,  the  blowing  of 
a  trumpet,  and  the  proclamation  of  a  fast ;  indicating 
that  he  lived  under  the  developed  priestly  Law. 

Canticles,  "the  Song  of  Solomon,"  as  the  author- 
ized version  has  it,  or,  as  it  is  more  correctly  called  in 
the  revised  version,  "  The  Song  of  Songs,"  is  the  book 
which  has  had  the  m6st  extraordinary  fortune  of  all. 
Originally,  as  now  seems,  a  series  of  wedding-songs 
used  at  the  seven-day  marriage-festivals,  and  falling 


172        "The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

out  of  use  in  the  times  when  there  was  no  longer 
singing  or  joy  in  troubled  Israel,  it  took  on  in  the 
hands  of  interpreters  a  symbolical  sense  and  began  to 
pass  for  a  sacred  book.  This  tendency  was  con- 
firmed by  the  final  destruction  of  Jerusalem  ;  councils 
decreed  the  soundness  of  the  interpretation,  and  it 
stood  unquestioned  for  a  thousand  years.  But  such  a 
theory  of  the  book  has  no  longer  any  standing.  The 
most  competent  admit  that  an  error  was  committed  in 
taking  this  for  a  sacred  instead  of  a  secular  song,  — 
a  piece  of  work  good  enough  in  its  way,  but  never 
intended  to  symbolize  anything  religious.  The  Song 
of  Songs  was  probably  written  early  in  the  third 
century. 

The  errors  of  admission  into  the  canon  were  matched 
by  errors  of  exclusion.  As  we  have  seen,  Ecclesiasticus 
might  have  been  substituted  with  advantage  for  Eccle- 
siastes,  and  now  it  may  be  added  that  the  story  of 
Tobit,  written  about  200  b.  c,  would  have  been  more 
edifying  scripture  than  Canticles.  The  fact  that  it  is 
rated  only  apocrypha  should  keep  no  one  from  reading 
it,  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  engaging  and  consolatory 
bits  of  literature  that  have  come  down  to  us  from 
antiquity.  With  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  it  is 
sacred  scripture,  as  are  several  other  of  our  so-called 
apocryphal  books,  including  I.  and   II.   Maccabees. 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  173 

The  time  has  now  arrived  when  it  is  matter  of  deep 
regret  that  these  latter,  at  least  I.  Maccabees,  should 
ever  have  been  excluded  by  Protestant  churches,  for 
they  are  the  thrilling  history  of  the  time  out  of  which, 
as  competent  students  are  generally  coming  to  see, 
came  the  book  of  Daniel,  the  last  note  of  prophecy  in 
Israel. 

In  the  year  165  b.  c.  the  Jews  under  Judas  Macca- 
baeus  were  in  full  rebellion  against  their  Syrian  over- 
lord, Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who  by  seeking  violently 
to  subvert  the  religious  customs  of  the  people  had 
aroused  universal  indignation.  The  crowning  act  of 
his  tyranny  had  been  to  set  up  in  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem  an  altar  (some  say  a  statue)  of  Olympian 
Zeus.  This  stirred  Judea  to  its  center.  A  poet 
breathed  out  the  plaint  of  the  74th  Psalm : 

"  O  God !  why  hast  thou  cast  us  off  forever  ? 
Thine  enemies  roar  in  the  place  of  thine  assemblies ; 
Their  own  symbols  have  they  set  up  for  signs. 
They  have  profaned  and  cast  to  the  ground  the  dwelling-place  of 
thy  name." 

The  Maccabees  had  appealed  to  arms,  and  circum- 
stances had  favored  the  revolt ;  they  had  succeeded  in 
winning  some  brilliant  victories.  The  situation  seemed 
to  call  for  a  great  prophetic  word  to  nerve  the  people 
to  their  bold  undertaking.      But  though  one  might 


174        '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

have  the  prophetic  spirit,  it  was  too  late  for  a  prophet 
to  discourse  to  any  purpose  in  his  own  name.  The 
sense  of  intimacy  with  God  had  given  way  to  a  sense 
of  the  divine  majesty,  and  it  seemed  presumptuous 
for  one  to  say  any  more,  "  Thus  saith  Yah  we."  He 
who  should  do  so  would  be  called  a  fanatic  and  set 
aside.  To  have  his  word  effective,  the  soul  stirred  to 
prophetic  utterance  must  have  recourse  to  an  artifice 
which  not  infrequently  before  had  been  employed  by 
writers  of  sacred  books,  —  he  must  put  his  words  into 
the  mouth  of  some  one  who  lived  in  the  days  when 
prophecy  was  in  order. 

Of  a  person  by  the  name  of  Daniel  there  is  no 
mention  in  any  previous  book,  the  two  occurrences  of  it 
in  Ezekiel  being,  as  recent  critics  have  shown,  corrup- 
tions of  Enoch.  But  not  unlikely  oral  traditions  of 
such  a  person  were  afloat,  on  which  the  writer  of  the 
new  book  based  his  statement  that  his  hero,  with 
whom  he  later  identifies  himself,  was  among  the  exiles 
who  were  taken  to  Babylonia.  The  writer,  who  had 
literary  and  imaginative  powers  of  a  high  order,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  developing  these  traditions,  of 
writing  a  book  as  from  the  hand  of  this  hero  himself, 
giving  a  marvelous  story  of  his  experiences  in  Baby- 
lon, and  setting  forth  in  prophetical  imagery  the 
course  of  history  for  the  three  hundred  and  seventy 


Other  Post-Exilic  JVritings  175 

intervening  years,  to  which  he  would  add  an  actual 
prophecy  of  far  more  astonishing  things  shortly  to 
come  to  pass,  which  he  beUeved  were  at  the  moment 
heralded  by  the  glorious  achievements  of  Judas 
Maccabaeus. 

The  prediction  found  in  the  book  of  Jeremiah, 
whether  Jeremiah's  own  or  not,  set  the  length  of  the 
captivity  at  seventy  years.  But  there  was  no  very 
satisfactory  fulfillment  of  this,  at  the  expiration  of 
that  time  only  a  few  of  the  Jews  having  returned ; 
moreover  the  captivity  had  continued  in  Judea  through 
the  centuries,  and  often  with  a  bitterness  of  oppression 
not  felt  in  Babylonia.  So  it  occurred  to  this  author 
that  there  had  been  a  misunderstanding  of  that  pro- 
phetic passage.  He  conceived  that  the  word  "  years  " 
as  there  used  had  a  hidden  sense,  meaning  not  ordi- 
nary years  but  "  weeks  of  years."  That  is,  to  get  at 
the  true  period  the  number  must  be  multiplied  by 
seven.  The  author  of  Daniel  restates  the  old  proph- 
ecy in  his  own  symbols.  He  assumes  that  the  cap- 
tivity to  Babylon  began  in  605,  which  is  probably 
correct,  as  Nebuchadrezzar  in  that  year  defeated 
Necho  and  drove  the  Egyptians  out  of  Syria,  after 
which  Jerusalem  soon  fell  into  his  hands.  "  Seventy 
weeks  are  decreed,"  says  this  prophet,  that  is,  seven 
times  seventy  years  ;  and  then  he  makes  the  specific 


176       T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

statement  that  from  the  starting-point  (605  b.  c.)  to 
"  the  anointed  one,  the  prince  (Cyrus),  shall  be  seven 
weeks,"  in  plain  words  forty-nine  years  ;  which  brings 
us  down,  for  the  date  of  Cyrus,  to  the  year  556,  and 
is  well  enough,  as  that  monarch  was  then  looming  up 
as  the  coming  conqueror.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Cyrus  had  been  distinctly  called  by  the  Second 
Isaiah,  **the  anointed  one"  (the  Messiah).  Daniel,  or 
rather  the  angel  Gabriel  who  is  talking  to  him,  then 
proceeds  to  say  that  in  sixty-two  weeks  the  Holy  City 
"shall  be  built  again  with  street  and  moat,  even  in 
troublous  times.  And  after  the  three  score  and  two 
weeks  shall  the  anointed  one  be  cut  off."  The  sixty- 
two  weeks  stand  for  seven  times  sixty-two,  or  four 
hundred  and  thirty-four  years  ;  which  from  the  starting- 
point,  605  B.C.,  brings  us  to  the  year  171,  the  year 
in  which  Onias,  high-priest,  an  "anointed  one,"  was 
cut  off.  Then  we  are  told,  "  the  people  of  the  prince 
that  shall  come  shall  destroy  the  city  and  the  sanct- 
uary," which  is  what  the  prince  Antiochus  did  in 
those  years  right  under  the  eyes  of  this  writer.  And 
this  prince,  he  says,  "  shall  make  a  firm  covenant  with 
many  for  one  week  (seven  years),  and  in  the  middle 
of  the  week  (that  is,  toward  the  end  of  168)  he  will 
cause  the  sacrifice  and  oblation  to  cease  (which  he  did 
by  setting  up  the  altar  of  Zeus  in  the  temple) ;  and 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  177 

at  the  end  of  the  week,  and  that  determined,  shall 
wrath  be  poured  out  upon  the  desolator."  In  other 
words,  in  164,  the  very  next  year  after  this  was 
written,  judgment  should  fall  upon  Antiochus.  From 
the  fact  that  Antiochus  actually  came  to  his  death 
in  the  year  164  b.  c,  this  has  been  considered  a  re^ 
markable  prediction.*  But  if  the  prophet  hit  this  one 
point  of  what  lay  in  the  future,  he  missed  almost 
everything  else.  He  saw  nothing  of  Rome,  but  made 
Israel  to  be  the  world-empire  in  succession  of  Greece, 
and  produced  a  picture  of  events  immediately  to  follow 
as  far  from  what  actually  followed  as  could  well  be 
imagined. 

As  to  what  preceded  his  date  the  writer's  errors  are 
only  such  as  came  from  defective  knowledge  of  history. 
He  makes  the  Babylonians  of  the  time  of  the  captivity 
speak  the  Chaldean  language,  when  in  fact  the  lan- 
guage then  spoken  by  them  was  Aramaic.  He  has 
Babylon  captured  in  the  year  538  by  "Darius  the 
Mede,"  then  said  to  be  sixty-two  years  old ;  but  it 
appears  now  that  there  never  was  any  such  king  as 
Darius  the  Mede,  and  Darius  I.  of  Persia  was  crowned 


*  The  circumstances  of  his  death  are  not  well  established.  The 
foretelling  of  it  in  a  time  of  insurrection  as  to  take  place  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  may  have  prompted  some  fanatics  to  lay  violent  hands 
on  the  prince.  For  a  Jewish  account,  now  rather  discredited,  see 
II.  Maccabees  i  :  10-17. 


178        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

seventeen  years  later.  He  makes  Xerxes  the  suc- 
cessor of  Artaxerxes  and  contemporary  with  Alex- 
ander. He  spells  Nebuchadrezzar  wrong,  and  his 
King  "Belshazzar"  is  unknown  to  history.  But, 
aside  from  a  few  such  slips,  he  gets  the  general  course 
of  events  straight  until  he  comes  down  to  the  year  in 
which  he  writes  ;  then,  undertaking  really  to  foretell, 
he  conspicuously  fails. 

Thus  even  a  slight  examination  of  the  prophetic 
part  of  the  book  indicates  clearly  enough  its  date. 
Its  late  origin  is  confirmed  by  a  glance  at  the  narrative 
portion.  Here  the  first  thing  that  strikes  the  reader 
is  the  multiplicity  of  most  amazing  miracles.  Neb- 
uchadrezzar has  a  dream  which  he  wants  interpreted, 
and  calls  in  his  magicians  for  the  purpose.  When 
they  reach  the  palace  he  has  forgotten  his  dream,  and 
in  his  perplexity  he  requires  them  to  tell  him  the 
dream  as  well  as  the  interpretation,  threatening  in 
case  of  failure  to  put  the  whole  of  them  to  death. 
Of  course  they  cannot ;  but  Daniel  comes  forward 
and  proves  fully  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  king  is 
satisfied,  and  glorifies  the  God  of  Daniel.  And  yet 
he  proceeds  to  make  a  colossal  image  of  himself  for 
the  people  to  worship,  and  when  the  three  friends  of 
Daniel  refuse  to  bow  down,  he  has  them  cast  into  a 
flaming  furnace,  where  they  walk  about  in  the  midst 


Other  Post' Exilic  Writings  179 

of  the  glowing  fire  without  a  singe,  although  the  heat 
is  so  intense  as  to  have  killed  the  guards  who  thrust 
them  in.  King  Nebuchadrezzar  was  a  successful 
monarch  and  became  very  proud.  It  was  necessary 
to  humble  this  haughty  spirit ;  so  he  was  compelled 
to  lay  aside  the  scepter  and  go  into  the  fields  to  eat 
grass  like  an  ox  for  seven  years.  Finally  Daniel  him- 
self is  cast  into  a  den  of  lions,  whereupon  the  beasts 
proved  as  harmless  to  him  as  kittens,  although  some 
other  men,  thrown  in,  were  seized  and  devoured  before 
ever  they  reached  the  bottom  of  the  den.  An  eye- 
witness, even  among  the  credulous  ancients,  never 
relates  stories  of  this  kind.  They  can  only  be  told  of 
a  time  long  gone  by.  Again,  when  we  go  back  to  the 
period  in  which  the  scene  is  laid,  they  vanish.  Ezekiel, 
who  lived  in  Babylonia  at  the  time,  and  the  Second 
Isaiah,  who  was  also  there,  knew  nothing  of  these 
proceedings  ;  nor  did  Ezra  or  Nehemiah,  both  of  whom 
were  on  the  ground. 

As  this  book  is  near  to  the  New  Testament  in 
time  —  within  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  — 
we  mark  also  a  nearness  in  tone  and  teaching  and  in 
the  very  mechanism  of  revelation.  The  divine  word 
comes  through  an  angel,  Gabriel  by  name,  the  same 
who  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke  announces  the  birth  of 
John  the  Baptist  and  of  Jesus ;  there  are  the  doctrines 


i8o       l^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  immortality  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the 
proclamation  of  an  imminent  final  judgment  and  of 
everlasting  rewards  and  punishments.  We  are  already 
in  the  atmosphere  of  John's  Apocalypse. 

The  Old  Testament  canon  was  virtually  closed 
before  Daniel  appeared  ;  but  the  book  made  such 
appeal  to  Jewish  patriotism,  so  met  the  demand  of  the 
hour,  as  to  achieve  at  once  great  popularity.  It  forced 
its  way  into  the  canon  as  by  a  coup  de  maitiy  where- 
upon the  door  was  finally  closed  and  bolted.* 

The  remaining  books  to  be  mentioned  are  called 
apocryphal,  a  word  that  has  come  to  mean  doubtful 
or  spurious.  Its  proper  sense  is  hidden.  Of  the 
apocryphal  books  found  (in  some  bibles)  between  the 
two  Testaments,  all  except  Esdras  and  the  Prayer  of 
Manasses  are,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  held 
canonical  (or  deutero-canonical,  which  appears  to  mean 
practically  the  same  thing).  The  Anglican  and 
Lutheran  churches  commend  them  "  for  instruction," 
but  by  other  authorities  they  are  rejected  altogether  — 
left  to  fall,  in  the  general  Protestant  estimation,  into 
a  sort  of  bogus  scripture.  It  was  natural  that  in  the 
growing  multiplicity  of  books  some  should  be  rejected, 


*  The  old  Jews  rated  their  scriptures  in  three  grades  of  sanctity ; 
I.  the  Law;  2.  the  Prophets;  3.  Writings.  Daniel  was  admitted 
only  as  a  Writing. 


Other  Fost'Exilic  Writings  i8i 

but  the  discrimination  exercised  was  far  from  infallible. 
Generally  the  Apocrypha  may  be  called  inferior  to 
what  goes  before,  but  some  of  it  is  not.  I.  Maccabees, 
for  instance,  stands  well  alongside  any  of  the  Bible 
history-books,  and  puts  some  of  them  surely  to  shame. 
Compare  this  valuable  record  of  Judean  events  through 
forty  stirring  years  with  the  pretended  account  of 
affairs  in  Babylon  for  an  equal  period  given  in  the 
book  of  Daniel. 

There  was  no  sudden  change  in  the  current  of 
Jewish  literature,  in  the  second  century  b.  c,  to  render 
the  waters  turbid  which  before  had  been  crystal-pure. 
Books  of  edification,  in  poetry  and  in  prose,  continued 
to  be  written.  The  quality  of  sacred  writ  was  not  so 
clearly  defined  but  that  additions  to  an  existing  book 
might  be  made  by  a  competent  scribe,  slyly,  if  not 
openly ;  and  this  was  done  to  a  considerable  extent. 
Old  stories  reappeared  in  new  dress,  decked  out  in 
the  fancies  with  which  the  eastern  mind  delights  to  ob- 
scure every  feature  of  reality,  the  same  passion  before 
noted,  for  hiding  behind  some  already  famous  name, 
holding  on  with  the  writers.  A  most  extraordinary 
illustration  of  this  passion  for  a  pseudo-antiquity  is 
the  book  of  Enoch,  which  took  shape  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  century  b.  c.  The  author  had  studied 
Daniel,  and,  in  common  with  many  others,  had  felt 


1 82        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

keen  disappointment  to  find  the  predictions  of  the 
book  so  completely  failing  of  fulfillment.  Evidently 
not  enough  time  had  been  given  there  for  the  work- 
ing out  of  Israel's  salvation.  The  writer  of  Enoch 
gave  the  cabalistic  numbers  another  shake,  and  lo ! 
Jeremiah's  seventy  years  and  Daniel's  seventy  weeks 
of  years  become  "  seventy  periods  of  heathen  rulers  "  ! 
When  Israel  had  counted  these  seventy  oppressors 
the  end  of  her  captivity  would  come.  This  book 
acquired  no  little  vogue  from  its  imposing  claim  to 
come  down  from  Enoch,  "  the  seventh  from  Adam," 
famed  for  his  sanctity.  It  is  even  quoted  in  the  New 
Testament  (Jude  14),  and  quoted  in  such  a  way  as  to 
sanction  its  claim  of  antiquity.  With  this  endorse- 
ment we  should  expect  it  to  have  a  place  in  the  canon  ; 
but  it  failed  of  this  except  with  the  Abyssinian  Chris- 
tians, to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  its  preservation. 
It  is  of  really  great  theological  importance,  fairly 
anticipating  many  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity.* 


*  Here  we  find,  a  century  before  the  first  line  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  written,  all  the  chief  features  of  its  doctrine  respecting  the 
"end  of  the  world"  and  the  "coming  of  the  Son  of  Man";  the 
same  theater,  —  Jerusalem ;  the  same  time  relatively  to  the  writer,  — 
the  immediate  generation,  the  hour  at  hand ;  the  same  harbingers,  — 
wars  and  rumors  of  wars  and  the  gathering  of  gentile  armies  against 
the  elect ;  the  same  deliverance  for  the  elect,  —  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah  with  the  holy  angels ;  the  same  decisive  solemnity,  —  the 
Son  of  Man  on  the  throne  of  his  glory,  with  all  nations  gathered 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  183 

A  less  important  writing  of  this  century,  dated  back 
with  a  like  audacity,  is  The  Testament  of  the  XII 
Patriarchs,  which  purports  to  be  the  dying  commands 
of  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob,  each  dealing  with  a  virtue 
or  a  vice  of  which  his  own  life  affords  some  apt  illus- 
tration. The  Hellenistic  Jews  of  this  time  had  also 
their  Sibylline  Oracles,  in  more  or  less  conscious  imita- 
tion of  the  Greeks,  worked  out  however  in  accordance 
with  their  own  traditions.  There  was  much  editing 
and  revising  of  the  old  books,  for  the  notion  of  Holy 
Scripture  had  not  yet  hardened  to  the  point  of  putting 
a  bar  on  emendations ;  a  flaw  might  be  corrected,  an 
omission  supplied.  In  regard  to  the  book  of  Esther, 
for  instance,  the  absence  of  the  name  of  God  in  it  had 
come  to  be  something  of  a  reproach.  An  Alexandrian 
Jew,  to  remedy  this  defect,  produced  several  supple- 


before  him;  the  same  award,  —  unbelievers  to  a  pit  of  fire  in  the 
valley  of  Hinnom,  and  the  elect  to  the  halls  of  the  kingdom,  to  eat 
and  drink  at  Messiah's  table ;  the  same  accession  to  the  society,  — 
by  the  first  resurrection  sending  up  from  Hades  the  souls  of  the  pious 
dead ;  the  same  renovation  of  the  earth,  —  the  old  Jerusalem  thrown 
away  and  replaced  by  a  new  and  heavenly ;  the  same  metamorphosis 
of  mortal  men,  —  to  be  as  the  angels ;  the  same  end  to  Messiah's 
time,  —  the  second  resurrection,  and  the  second  judgment  of  eternity, 
consigning  the  wicked  angels  to  their  doom;  and  the  same  new 
creation,  transforming  the  heavenly  world  that  it  may  answer  to 
Paradise  below.  Here,  in  a  book  to  which  the  New  Testament  itself 
appeals,  we  have  the  very  drama  of  "  last  things  "  which  reappears 
in  the  book  of  "  Revelation "  and  in  portions  of  the  Gospels. — 
Marti  NEAU. 


1 84       '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

mentary  chapters  in  which  the  name  of  God  occurs 
more  than  forty  times.  Three  distinct  additions  were 
also  made  to  the  book  of  Daniel :  The  Song  of  the 
Three  Children,  The  History  of  Susanna,  and  Bel 
and  the  Dragon.  The  Three  Children  are  the  three 
friends  of  Daniel  who  were  subjected  to  the  ordeal  of 
the  fiery  furnace.  To  emphasize  the  security  of  these 
men  in  the  midst  of  the  flames  the  writer  conceived 
the  idea  of  putting  into  their  mouth  a  song !  Susanna 
is  a  falsely  accused  woman  to  whom  rescue  comes 
through  the  shrewdness  of  the  boy  Daniel  in  cross- 
examining  the  pretended  witnesses.  Bel  and  the 
Dragon  are  Babylonian  images  which  Daniel  destroys 
after  making  out  their  priests  to  be  impostors.  Out 
of  the  first  century  b.  c.  came  also  I.  Esdras,  an 
unhistorical  enlargement  of  Ezra,  and  Judith,  a  strik- 
ing bit  of  fiction,  familiar  to  all  lovers  of  art.  The 
Prayer  of  Manasses,  or  Manasseh,  is  put  into  the 
mouth  of  the  king  of  Judah  of  that  name  who  undid 
the  work  of  his  father  Hezekiah  and  went  to  quite  a 
Solomonic  extreme  of  liberality  toward  the  gods  of 
heathendom.  He  was  a  very  happy  and  prosperous 
king,  contrary  to  the  Jewish  idea  of  what  ought  to 
have  happened  to  him  ;  and  so  the  story  was  invented 
that  he  did  come  to  grief,  was  taken  in  chains  to 
Babylon  and  made  to  suffer  there  (II.  Chron.  33  : 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  185 

10-13).  The  penitential  prayer  was  apparently  in- 
tended for  insertion  after  the  Chronicler's  statement. 
Many  of  the  writings  of  this  century  were  apocalyp- 
tic, making  revelation  of  some  way  of  escape  for 
Israel  out  of  a  situation  of  thralldom  which  looked 
to  be  interminable.  So  many  prophecies  of  deliver- 
ance had  been  made  without  result  that  it  seemed 
necessary  to  bring  an  ever  stronger  authority.  Some 
remarkable  works  appeared  now  as  from  Moses  him- 
self, the  sanctified  hero  of  the  nation,  the  first  great 
lawgiver.  The  most  important  of  these  is  the  book 
of  Jubilees,  so  called  from  its  chronological  system,  at 
the  basis  of  which  is  the  jubilee  period  of  forty-nine 
years.  It  is  a  sort  of  commentary  on  Genesis  and  the 
Law,  and  assumes  to  have  been  made  by  Moses  in  the 
first  year  of  the  exodus.  It  is  more  bulky  than  any 
book  of  the  Pentateuch,  which  it  undertakes  to  defend 
and  explain  from  the  standpoint  of  the  later  Judaism. 
Another  of  these  books  is  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
from  which  it  is  supposed  that  Jude  obtained  the 
statement  which  he  adopts  about  the  dispute  between 
the  angel  Michael  and  Satan  over  the  body  of  Moses. 
Thus  on  one  and  the  same  page  of  the  Bible  we  have 
two  books  —  this  and  Enoch  —  quoted  as  authorities, 
neither  of  which  has  a  place  even  in  our  Apocrypha  ! 
In  regard  to  the  Assumption  of  Moses  it  is  of  interest 


1 86        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

to   say  that    it  was  written  during  the   lifetime   of 
Jesus. 

Besides  the  varied  literary  output  already  treated, 
dating  not  far  from  the  Christian  era  and  influential 
in  forming  the  sentiment  out  of  which  Jesus  and  the 
first  Christian  writings  arose,  mention  must  be  made 
of  the  Talmud,  which  had  been  forming  for  three 
hundred  years  —  a  body  of  doctrine,  precept,  and 
comment,  enforcing,  explaining,  and  adapting  to  ever 
varying  conditions  the  old  Law  accredited  to  Moses. 
This  is  an  extensive  literature  in  itself,  already  largely 
developed  at  the  Christian  era,  and  an  object  of  study 
to  every  thoughtful  Jew.  Among  the  most  distin- 
guished contributors  to  the  Talmud  was  Hillel.  In 
his  precepts  both  Jesus  and  those  writing  in  the 
name  of  Paul  found  some  of  their  best  thoughts 
already  formulated.  Hillel  said :  "  Love  peace,  and 
seek  after  it;  love  mankind,  and  bring  them  to 
the  Law."  Once,  we  are  told,  when  a  heathen  asked 
Hillel  to  show  him  the  whole  Jewish  religion  in  a 
few  words,  the  enlightened  Rabbi  answered :  "  Do 
not  to  others  what  thou  wouldst  not  should  be  done 
to  thee ;  this  is  the  whole  extent  of  the  Law ;  all  the 
rest  is  merely  accessory ;  go  now  and  learn  to  under- 
stand that."  The  Talmud  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  chief  bond  of  union  among  the  Jews  since  their 


Other  Post-Exilic  Writings  187 

dispersion  over  the  world,  and  also  the  most  effective 
means  of  keeping  alive  among  them  the  religious  idea, 
the  party  rejecting  the  Talmud,  the  so-called  Script- 
ural Jews,  having  fallen  into  an  abject  condition. 

From  this  hasty  review  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is 
no  such  gap  of  silence  between  the  writing  of  the  two 
Testaments  as  one  might  think  who  had  only  the 
canonical  books  to  go  by.  That  was  a  period  indeed 
of  more  than  usual  literary  activity,  the  product,  though 
not  all  of  a  high  order,  evidently  exceeding  in  bulk 
the  whole  mass  of  the  canonical  scriptures.  So  much 
writing  meant  much  thinking,  and  some  of  the  think- 
ers had  a  forward  look.  Underneath  all,  there  was 
a  steady  tendency  to  the  breadth  of  view  and  the 
deliverance  from  ritual  burdens  that  came  with  the 
Gospel. 

The  real  distinction  between  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity is  not  so  much  a  principle  as  a  policy.  The 
older  faith  never  came  to  the  full  consciousness  of  any 
mission  to  convert  the  world  ;  it  is  essentially  the 
religion  of  a  race,  and  works  no  propaganda.  And 
yet  there  are  signs  of  the  awakening  of  a  wider 
thought  in  the  later  centuries  of  the  Jewish  State. 
From  the  time  of  exile,  with  growing  frequency,  inti- 
mations appear  of  a  belief  that  the  whole  human  race 
will  eventually  come  to  the  service  of  Yahw^.     Even 


1 88        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Zephaniah,  with  all  his  partiality  for  his  own  people, 
declares  that  the  other  nations  shall  have  bestowed 
upon  them  "  pure  lips,  so  that  they  all  of  them  may 
call  upon  the  name  of  Yahwe,  and  serve  him  with  one 
consent."  The  story  is  told  of  Jonah  going  to  Nineveh 
and  converting  the  whole  city  to  the  service  of  the 
true  God.  Such  a  conversion  could  not  occur,  but 
that  such  a  story  should  be  told  is  significant.  We 
know  from  Josephus  and  others  that  wherever  the 
Jews  were  established  in  the  later  days  they  made 
numerous  converts.  Most  of  the  women  of  Damascus, 
we  are  told,  were  at  one  time  led  to  embrace  Judaism. 
And  this  outr caching  movement  is  confirmed  by  the 
complaints  of  Roman  historians  and  poets  that  "  the 
detestable  Jewish  superstition  '*  was  finding  adherents 
everywhere.  Thus  the  first  steps  toward  the  mission- 
ary policy  which  marked  Christianity  from  the  time 
of  Paul  were  taken  by  the  Jews  of  a  previous  century, 
and  the  existence  of  Jewish  communities  in  all  the 
centers  of  commercial  activity,  in  Asia  Minor,  in 
Egypt,  in  Greece,  in  Italy,  and  even  in  Spain,  afforded 
the  best  possible  conditions  for  a  great  religious  prop- 
aganda when  the  fullness  of  time  should  come.  And 
the  signs  were  abounding  that  the  time  was  at  hand. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship  in  Israel. 

Change  of  a  thousand  years  in  the  idea  of  God  —  Idolatry  a  thing  of 
the  past  —  Yahwe  grows  from  a  tribal  deity  to  be  the  one  only 
real  God  —  Service  of  the  great  prophets  in  this  process  —  Sharp 
friction  at  times  with  the  priesthood  —  Deuteronomy  designed 
to  work  harmony  —  Subsequent  expansion  of  the  ritual  —  On 
the  other  hand  a  reaching  out  for  a  spiritual  worship  —  Job  a 
monument  of  this  —  The  Psalms  —  Piety  in  many  of  them  sadly 
mixed  with  intolerance  and  ill-will  —  In  others  exceeding  purity 
and  power  —  Breadth  and  universality  of  a  few. 

WE  have  traced  the  development  in  Israel  of 
Law  and  Liturgy,  of  Prophecy  and  Wisdom ; 
it  remains  now  to  inquire  into  the  growth  of 
pure  religion,  of  a  spiritual  worship.  As  has  been 
seen,  during  the  early  period  when  the  people  were 
turning  from  the  worship  of  many  to  the  worship  of 
one,  the  conception  of  God  did  not  greatly  change. 
Israel's  God  was  one,  but  still  one  of  many,  differing 
from  the  rest  only  as  one  race  of  men  differs  from 
another  race.  Like  the  rest,  he  was  capricious  and 
vengeful,  dealing  heavy  blows  for  slight  offenses,*  and 


*  As  see  I.  Sam.  6:19;  II.  Sam.  6 :  6,  7  ;  24 :  1-14. 


190       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

requiring  to  be  treated  with  exceeding  tact.  His  wor- 
ship was  only  a  modification  of  idolatrous  practices  in 
vogue  among  the  nations  round  about.  After  a  thou- 
sand years  all  this  is  changed.  The  Hebrew  concep- 
tion of  God,  and  the  Hebrew  attitude  toward  Him,  as 
expressed  in  Job,  Proverbs,  and  certain  of  the  Psalms, 
has  attained  a  height  of  spirituality  and  philosophic 
grandeur  hardly  since  surpassed.  A  glimpse  at  the 
process  by  which  this  change  was  brought  about  can- 
not fail  to  be  interesting  and  instructive. 

It  was  not  identical  or  coincident  with  either  of  the 
processes  before  mentioned,  though  indirectly  affected 
by  them,  now  helped  and  now  hindered.  In  the  period 
before  the  monarchy  the  Israelites  reached  the  con- 
viction that  among  the  gods  there  was  one  favorable 
to  them  as  a  people,  and  on  this  basis  the  beginnings 
of  their  distinctive  religion  were  formed.  The  route 
forward  from  this  primitive  leading  idea  led  first  to 
the  service  of  this  one  God  to  the  neglect  of  all  the 
others,  —  a  stage  which  the  people  as  a  body  were 
fully  four  hundred  years  in  making.  Arrived  at  this 
point,  which  is  conveniently  called  monolatry,  the 
next  station  was  monotheism  —  belief  in  one  God  and 
one  alone  —  in  attaining  to  which  another  century  was 
passed.  In  bringing  the  people  up  to  these  points  the 
main   strength  of   the  prophets  was  spent,  and  the 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       191 

achievement  did  them  great  credit,  especially  as  it  was 
accompanied  by  strenuous  efforts  on  their  part  to 
raise  the  moral  standard  of  the  community  as  far  as 
regarded  the  mutual  intercourse  of  its  members.  But 
the  attainment  of  these  ends,  indispensable  as  it  was, 
had  some  effects  on  the  religious  spirit  which  were  far 
from  favorable.  The  repudiation,  first  of  reverence 
for  the  gods  recognized  round  about,  and  then  of  their 
existence,  tended  directly  to  intensify  the  enmity  of 
the  Jews  for  other  races,  carrying  them  straight  away 
from  the  idea  of  universal  brotherhood  on  which  a  true 
world-religion  must  found.  The  anomalous  conjunction 
of  Hebrew  piety  of  a  very  tender  order  with  outbreath- 
ings  of  hatred  and  imprecations  on  people  of  other 
extraction,  so  commonly  met  with  in  the  Psalms,  and 
so  shockingly  marring  compositions  otherwise  often 
superlatively  admirable,  is  an  inevitably  bad  result  of 
the  prophetic  attitude.  Religion  was  crippled  by  the 
very  hand  that  gave  it  power. 

But  the  power  was  real.  The  mournful  piety  of 
the  first  prophets  whose  word  we  have  under  their 
own  hand  is  of  a  higher  order  than  the  world  had 
seen  down  to  their  day.  Overshadowed  as  they  were 
with  a  sense  that  the  sins  of  an  idolatrous  people  were 
of  too  deep  a  dye  ever  to  be  washed  out,  they  breathed 
their  despairing  lament  with  a  pathos  and  a  power 


192        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

which  somehow  achieved  the  unhoped-for  end.     We 
sometimes  regret  that  we  have  no  authentic  word  of 
preacher  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  first  quarter  of 
the  eighth  century,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
for  hterature  this   is   a  very  high  antiquity.      Few 
names  of  authors  are  older.      By  a  narrow  margin, 
Homer,  Lycurgus,  —  what  others  .?     The  ethico-relig- 
ious  appeal  of  Amos  coming  out  of  such  a  dim  dis- 
tance is  striking  in  the  extreme.     Evidently  from  the 
tone  of  his  reproaches  he  stood  almost  alone,  but  it  is 
notable  that,  in  a  time  of  such  darkness,  when  the 
service  of  God  was  only  a  round  of  bloody  sacrifices, 
one  should  be  found  to  cry  out :  "  Thus  saith  Yahwe 
to  the  house  of  Israel :    *  Seek  ye  me,  and  ye  shall 
live.  .  .  .  Seek  good  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  live ; 
and  so  Yahwe,  the  God  of  hosts,  shall  be  with  you, 
as  ye  say.      Hate  the  evil,  and  love  the  good,  and 
establish  judgment  in  the  gate.  .  .  .  Shall  not  the  day 
of  Yahwe  be  darkness,  and  not  light }  even  very  dark, 
and  no  brightness  in  it }    I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts, 
and  I  will  take  no  delight  in  your  solemn  assemblies. 
.  .  .  Take  away  from  me  the  noise  of  your  songs. 
But  let  judgment  roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteous- 
ness as  a  mighty  stream.'  " 

Isaiah  in  the  next  generation  strikes  the  same  note, 
and  pours  out  at  yet  greater  length  his  contempt  for 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       193 

the  hollow  formalities  of  the  people's  worship,  winding 
up  a  strikingly  denunciatory  utterance  with  the  exhor- 
tation :  **  Wash  you,  make  you  clean  ;  put  away  the 
evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes ;  cease  to 
do  evil ;  learn  to  do  well ;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the 
oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow." 
From  these  prophets  we  see  that  already  at  that  early 
date  the  ritual  had  become  a  burden  to  the  free  spirit. 
Piety  was  being  stifled  by  its  own  traditional  expres- 
sion. The  priests  in  seeking  to  preserve  religion 
through  a  maintenance  of  its  forms  were  in  fair  way 
to  find  themselves  in  possession  of  a  body  from  which 
the  soul  had  departed.  And  yet  the  priesthood,  to 
whom  was  committed  the  conduct  of  public  worship, 
could  not  suspend  their  ceremonies  at  the  dictation  of 
a  few  prophets ;  they  were  the  functionaries  of  the 
people,  set  apart  for  specific  duties  which  they  would 
not  be  permitted  to  neglect.  They  too  had  a  part  in 
working  out  the  genius  of  this  people,  an  even  more 
distinctive  and  conspicuous  part  than  had  the  proph- 
ets. The  primitive  idea  was  that  God's  requirements 
were  summed  up  in  worship,  and  the  oldest  elements 
of  the  Law  convey  that  idea  (as  see  Ex.  34) ;  so  the 
business  of  the  priesthood  in  the  early  centuries  was 
to  make  the  most  of  worship,  to  formulate  it  with 
precision  and  enforce  it  with  rigor ;  and  that,  too,  not 


194       '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

less  in  the  public  interest  than  in  the  interest  of  their 
calling.  The  people's  piety  expressed  itself  through 
them,  and  expressed  itself  in  the  established  cere- 
monies. This  was  the  old  conception  of  religion,  and 
it  held  on  after  the  migration  to  Canaan,  unquestioned, 
it  seems,  for  near  five  hundred  years.  Then  among 
the  prophets  arose  a  few  of  extraordinary  insight, 
courage,  and  power,  who  declared  distinctly  that  there 
was  a  great  mistake  in  this  old  theory  of  religion,  and 
that  if  the  truth  were  known  it  would  appear  that  God 
requires  not  worship  but  righteousness.  They  set 
themselves  strenuously  to  this  announcement  as  a 
revelation  to  them  from  Yahw^.  The  effect  was  a 
new  income  of  spiritual  life  for  this  people,  a  new 
epoch  in  their  religious  history.  Even  the  priests  — 
the  best  of  them  —  were  ultimately  constrained  to 
admit  that  the  divine  requirement  is  righteousness, 
and,  while  they  contended  for  the  maintenance  of 
worship,  contended  for  it  as  a  means  of  attaining 
righteousness ;  and  when,  in  the  seventh  century,  the 
Deuteronomic  Law  came  to  be  written,  it  was  on  this 
basis.  That  book,  which  was  the  first  great  expansion 
of  the  Mosaic  legend,  is  an  echo  of  the  sturdy  blows 
struck  by  the  prophets  —  a  mass  of  regulations  touch- 
ing the  public  and  the  private  life,  the  ordering  of  all 
sorts  of  affairs,  social,  hygienic,  domestic,  commercial. 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       195 

governmental,  diplomatic,  as  well  as  ecclesiastic,  — 
clearly  indicating  that  these  last  were  no  longer  to  be 
considered,  as  heretofore,  the  whole  thing.  Here  and 
there  the  pages  of  statutes  are  brightened  with  the 
glow  of  kindly  sentiment,  or  elevated  by  an  outburst 
of  noble  piety.  Toward  the  close,  after  entreating  the 
people  to  love  God  with  all  the  heart  and  all  the  soul, 
to  obey  His  voice  and  keep  His  commandments,  the 
writer  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Yahwe  this  sublime 
passage  on  the  facility  of  obedience  :  **  For  this  com- 
mandment which  I  command  thee  this  day,  it  is  not 
too  hard  for  thee,  neither  is  it  far  off.  It  is  not  in 
heaven,  that  thou  shouldest  say,  *  Who  shall  go  up  for 
us  to  heaven  and  bring  it  unto  us  and  make  us  to  hear 
it,  that  we  may  do  it } '  Neither  is  it  beyond  the  sea, 
that  thou  shouldest  say,  '  Who  shall  go  over  the  sea 
for  us  and  bring  it  unto  us  and  make  us  to  hear  it, 
that  we  may  do  it  t '  But  the  word  is  very  nigh  unto 
thee,  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart,  that  thou  mayest 
do  it."  Thus  is  duty  brought  home  to  the  individual, 
and  the  principle  almost  enunciated  that  the  soul  is 
itself  the  seat  of  authority  and  the  source  of  Law. 

Little  as  the  Deuteronomic  Law  was  given  to 
priestly  regulations,  burnt  -  offerings,  and  sacrifices, 
that  little  seems  to  have  been  more  than  Jeremiah, 
who  was  in  the  full  tide  of  his  prophetic  career  at 


196        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  time  this  Law  appeared,  could  approve,  for  he 
says  : 

'•  Thus  saith  Yahwe  of  Hosts,  the  God  of  Israel : 
I  spake  not  to  your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them 
Concerning  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices, 
At  the  time  when  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt; 
But  this  command  gave  I  to  them  : 
*  Hearken,'  said  I,  '  to  my  voice. 
And  I  will  be  your  God, 
And  ye  shall  be  my  people. 

And  walk  ye  in  all  the  ways  which  I  command  you, 
That  it  may  go  well  with  you.' " 

"  How  is  it  that  ye  say,  '  We  are  wise. 
We  possess  the  Law  of  Yahw^ '  t 
Behold,  the  false  pen  of  the  scribes 
Hath  turned  it  into  falsehood." 

"  Wash  thy  heart  from  wickedness,  O  Jerusalem, 
That  thou  mayst  be  saved." 

But  Deuteronomy  was  too  much  in  his  own  spirit 
to  be  seriously  opposed  by  Jeremiah.  Prophecy  had 
transformed  the  Law  from  a  rule  of  ceremony  to  a 
rule  of  life  in  which  ceremony  had  only  a  subordinate 
part.  To  the  prophet's  watchword,  Righteousness  the 
end,  the  priests  had  responded  with  the  compromise  : 
Worship,  the  means.  Thus  conceived,  worship  entered 
upon  a  greater  development  than  ever ;  prophecy  itself 
soon  became  absorbed  in  it.  The  ritual  grew  to  pro- 
portions of  which  the  priests  themselves  before  the 
exile  had  never  dreamed. 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       197 

This  marvelous  construction  was  completed  and  set 
forth,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  close  of  the  fifth  cent- 
ury. Built  on  the  framework  of  sacrifice  that  had 
come  down  from  immemorial  time,  it  was  worked  out 
and  decorated  with  all  that  symbolic  art  in  an  age  of 
art-culture  could  contribute.  Through  the  whole 
edifice  poetry  and  music  wove  their  airy  tracery,  cover- 
ing, under  their  graceful  tendrils,  and  hiding  away,  the 
revolting  features  inherited  from  a  rude  past.  But 
this  method  of  righteousness  had  the  fault  that,  by  its 
very  impressiveness,  it  overshadowed  and  obscured  the 
aim.  The  worshiper,  absorbed  in  the  mechanism, 
forgot  that  it  had  any  ulterior  purpose.  Moreover, 
the  worship  itself  in  its  externality  came  far  short  of 
a  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  The  pomp  of  cere- 
mony had  the  drawback  it  always  has  of  suggesting 
an  outward  object  of  devotion,  attainable  through  the 
senses  and  not  immediate  to  the  soul ;  it  did  not 
reveal  God  as  spirit.  The  righteousness  secured  by  the 
ritual  was  primarily  a  Tightness  of  form ;  correctness 
of  taste  and  of  manners,  rather  than  purity  of  heart. 
The  compromise  made  by  prophetism  was  therefore 
largely  abortive,  and  spiritual  conceptions  of  God  and 
a  spiritual  worship  were  yet  to  seek. 

The  method  of  the  old  prophets  had  been  to  de- 
nounce the  ritual  as  a  vain  show,  a  worship  of  the 


1 93        "The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

outward  akin  to  idolatry  ;  but  by  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century  the  ritual  was  too  powerfully  entrenched 
to  be  denounced  to  any  purpose ;  it  could  only  be 
ignored  by  those  who  had  found  a  better  way.  The 
better  way  chosen  by  the  wise  was  direct  communion 
with  God,  reached  by  calm  reflection.  The  book  of 
Job  is  a  monument  of  this  movement  of  the  spirit. 
In  its  original  form  —  that  is,  in  the  body  of  the  book 
which  makes  the  genuine  Job  —  there  is  no  mention 
of  priest  or  of  temple  offerings  ;  one  would  never 
know  from  it  that  the  Jews  had  a  ritual.  There  is 
also  an  entire  departure  from  the  anthropomorphic 
theology  of  the  prophets  —  a  God  apart,  speaking  to 
them  as  man  to  man.  Of  the  angelology  of  Zechariah 
and  of  the  old  histories  there  is  no  trace.  In  the 
book  of  Job  a  philosophic  soul  turns  his  back  on  all 
that,  and  enters  upon  an  independent  contemplation 
of  God  and  of  the  mysteries  of  His  providence, — 
from  which  there  result  conceptions  of  Deity  higher 
and  truer  than  had  ever  before  found  an  utterance, 
and  a  spiritual  worship,  a  sweet  and  tender  piety, 
especially  attractive  on  account  of  its  entire  natural- 
ness, reached  without  the  intervention  of  any  ritual- 
istic machinery,  any  mediating  appliances.  This 
writer  talks  not  of  Yahw^ ;  no  name  of  tutelary 
divinity  suffices  for  him.     His  speech  is  of  God,  the 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  IV or  ship        199 

Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  unsearchable 
majesty  of  the  theme  has  duly  impressed  him.  The 
Omnipotent  discloses  Himself  on  every  hand  : 

"  He  shaketh  the  earth  out  of  her  place, 
And  the  pillars  thereof  tremble. 
He  commandeth  the  sun,  and  it  riseth  not, 
And  he  sealeth  up  the  stars. 
He  alone  spreadeth  out  the  heavens. 
And  walketh  upon  the  high  waves  of  the  sea. 
He  made  the  Bear,  Orion,  and  the  Pleiads, 
And  the  secret  chambers  of  the  south. 
He  doeth  great  things  past  finding  out. 
Yea,  wonderful  things  without  number. 
Lo  I  he  goeth  by  me,  but  I  see  him  not ; 
Should  I  call,  and  he  make  answer  to  me, 
I  could  not  believe  that  he  listened  to  my  voice,  — 
He  who  falleth  upon  me  with  a  tempest, 
And  multiplieth  my  wounds  without  cause ! " 

The  innocent  sufferer  lacks  not  at  all  in  apprehension 
of  the  Infinite  Power;  few  have  so  fitly  voiced  the 
awe,  the  adoration,  which  that  Power  inspires.  And 
yet,  in  his  feebleness  and  misery,  the  consciousness  of 
uprightness  emboldens  him  to  stand  up  fearlessly 
before  this  dread  and  awful  Presence. 

«  O  that  I  might  speak  with  the  Almighty  I 
O  that  I  might  reason  with  God  I 
Lo  1  he  slayeth  me,  and  I  have  no  hope ; 
Yet  would  I  justify  my  ways  before  him. 

"  Only  do  not  unto  me  two  things, 
Then  will  I  not  hide  myself  from  thy  presence : 
Let  not  thy  hand  be  heavy  upon  me, 


200       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

And  let  not  thy  terrors  make  me  afraid. 

Then  call  upon  me,  and  I  will  answer ; 

Or  I  will  speak,  and  answer  thou  me. 

Wherefore  dost  thou  hide  thy  face, 

And  account  me  as  thine  enemy  ? 

Wilt  thou  put  in  fear  the  driven  leaf  ? 

Wilt  thou  pursue  the  dry  stubble  ? 

Thou  hemmest  in  the  souls  of  my  feet,  , 

And  I,  like  an  abandoned  thing,  shall  waste  away ; 

Like  a  garment  which  is  moth-eaten." 

Compare  these  lofty  strains  with  the  reported 
colloquies  of  Moses  with  Yahw^  in  the  32d  and  33d 
chapters  of  Exodus,  where,  to  turn  away  the  wrath 
of  Yahw^  on  account  of  the  inconstancy  of  the  people, 
Moses  appeals  to  his  pride,  and  reminds  him  of  what 
the  Egyptians  will  say  if  he  forsakes  his  people  now 
and  leaves  them  to  perish  in  the  desert;  and  where 
we  have  the  strangely  crude  representation  of  Yahwe 
withholding  the  sight  of  his  face  from  Moses,  but 
condescending  to  permit  a  furtive  glimpse  of  his  back. 
The  step  between  this  picture  and  that  almost  seems 
to  reach  from  primitive  man  to  the  modern  world. 

The  Psalms  are  the  principal  recourse  of  most 
readers  of  the  Old  Testament  in  quest  of  spiritual 
expression  of  the  religious  life ;  but  the  Psalms  are  a 
very  mixed  collection,  having  in  this  respect  the  char- 
acter which  an  imaginary  great  hymn-book  would  have 
which  should  contain  all  the  hymns  that  have  been 
popular  in  one  and  another  Christian  church.     Some 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  PP^ or  ship       201 

mount  very  high,  some  sink  very  low  ;  and  the  vexa- 
tious fact  is  that  both  the  height  and  the  depth  are 
not  infrequently  touched  in  the  same  piece.*  For 
the  maledictions  with  which  these  compositions  abound, 
it  may  be  admitted  that  there  was  great  provocation ; 
but  they  are  not  for  that  reason  lifted  into  fit  expres- 
sions of  modem  worship.  Three-fourths  of  them  are 
made  suitable  for  such  use  only  by  careful  elision. 
Of  the  remaining  fourth  there  are  a  few  in  which  no 
word  jars,  and  these,  together  with  twenty  or  thirty 
which  may  be  read  with  the  omission  of  a  line  or  two, 
must  be  considered  among  the  supreme  utterances  of 
the  religious  soul  voicing  its  worship  to  the  Oversoul. 
These,  for  the  most  part,  are  of  much  later  date  than 
Job,  and,  coming  from  a  great  number  of  poets,  reflect 
a  variety  of  religious  experience  and  of  spiritual  atti- 
tudes. Some  of  these  writers  are  ritualists ;  others 
are  as  far  removed  from  ritualism  as  was  Amos  or 
Isaiah,  and  as  pronounced  in  their  opposition.  "  Offer 
sacrifices  of  righteousness,"  says  one  of  these ;  and 
another  takes  on  the  very  tone  and  style  of  a  prophet, 
making  Yahw^  speak  : 

"  Hear,  O  my  people,  and  I  will  speak  1 
For  I  am  God,  thine  own  God. 


*  As  see  Pss.  ii,  21,  40,  55    58,  6;^^  68,  69,  71,  83,  109,  no,  137, 
139.  149- 


102        'the  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

I  will  take  no  bullock  from  thy  house, 

Nor  he-goat  from  thy  folds ; 

For  all  the  beasts  of  the  forest  are  min«, 

And  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills. 

I  know  all  the  birds  of  the  mountains, 

And  the  wild  beasts  of  the  field  are  before  me. 

If  I  were  hungry,  I  would  not  tell  thee ; 

For  the  world  is  mine,  and  all  that  is  therein. 

Do  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls. 

Or  drink  the  blood  of  goats  ? 

Offer  to  God  thanksgiving, 

And  pay  thy  vows  to  the  Most  High  ! 

Then  call  upon  me  in  the  day  of  trouble ; 

I  will  deliver  thee,  and  thou  shalt  glorify  me  ! " 

But  this  of  course  is  exceptional  in  a  collection  largely 
designed  for  use  in  the  temple  service.  There  is  how- 
ever a  goodly  number  of  the  best  psalms  which,  in 
the  high  manner  of  Job  and  Proverbs,  ignore  the 
sacrificial  ceremonies,  thus  rising  above  circumstances 
of  time  and  place  and  voicing  universal  longings, 
whereby  they  become  the  fit  vehicles  of  worship  in  all 
times  and  places.  There  is  a  circle  of  psalms,  directly 
dealing  with  worship  in  the  sanctuary,  of  so  general 
a  character  as  to  be  good  for  all  sanctuaries.  Such 
are  the  26th  and,  especially,  the  27th,  in  the  latter  of 
which  the  worshiper  expresses  a  desire  to  dwell  in  the 
sanctuary  all  the  days  of  his  life  in  adoration  of  the 
Eternal : 

"  For  in  the  day  of  trouble  he  will  hide  me  in  his  pavilion ; 
Vea,  in  the  secret  place  of  his  tabernacle  will  he  shelter  me.** 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  l^ or  ship       203 

And  again,  in  the  84th  we  have  one  breaking  out  with 
the  joyous  exclamation,  "  How  lovely  are  thy  taber- 
nacles ! " 

"  I  would  rather  stand  on  the  threshold  of  the  house  of  my  God 
Than  dwell  in  the  tents  of  wickedness. 
Yahw6  giveth  grace  and  glory ; 
No  good  thing  doth  he  withhold 
From  them  that  walk  uprightly." 

In  the  15th  and  the  24th  the  question  is  raised. 
Who  shall  ascend  the  holy  hill  ?  who  offer  the  accept- 
able worship  ?     And  both  have  one  answer : 

"  He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  doeth  righteousness, 
And  speaketh  the  truth  from  his  heart ; 
He  that  slandereth  not  with  his  tongue, 
That  doeth  no  injury  to  his  neighbor ; 
Who  sweareth  to  his  own  hurt,  and  changeth  not." 

A  considerable  series  especially  modern  in  tone 
belong  to  the  Wisdom  literature  already  referred  to.* 
Some  of  these  are  not  particularly  inspiring,  show- 
ing the  sad  limitations  of  knowledge  in  an  age  when 
science  was  not  as  yet ;  others,  as,  "  The  heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God,"  "  Thou  hast  been  our 
dwelling-place  in  all  generations,"  "  Thou  hast  searched 
me  and  known  me,"  are  of  an  unfading  sublimity,  and 
are  to  be  reckoned  among  the  uppermost  reaches  of 
the  spirit,  f 


*  Chapter  VI. 

t  The  best  are  these  nine :  8,  19,  ^Z^  39,  49,  90,  104,  107,  139. 


ao4        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

The  sense  of  security  and  trust  shown  in  many  of 
the  Psalms  forms  one  of  their  chief  titles  to  our  affec- 
tion. Here  and  there  is  breathed  a  spirit  of  absolute 
contentment,  as  in  the  strain  beginning,  "  My  portion 
hath  fallen  to  me  in  pleasant  places,"  and  as  in 
the  familiar  23d,  with  its  green  pastures  and  still 
waters.  And  what  confident  surety  is  expressed  in 
the  91  St,  "  He  who  sitteth  under  the  shelter  of  the 
Most  High"! 

When  we  come  to  prayer  and  praise,  what  expres- 
sion have  we  to  match  the  42d  and  43d,  which  really 
form  one  strain,  beginning,  — 

"  As  the  hart  panteth  for  the  water-brooks, 
So  panteth  my  soul  for  thee,  O  God  "  ? 

As  a  majestic  outpouring  of  the  soul,  consider  the 
65  th.  This  is  preeminently  the  psalm  for  all  cults, 
and  the  writer  even  seems  to  have  so  intended  it. 
No  use  is  made  of  the  name  Yahw^.  He  begins  by 
saying : 

"  To  thee  belongeth  trust,  to  thee  praise,  O  God  in  Zion  "  — 

and  immediately  bethinks  himself  that  this  expression 
is  too  narrow,  that  God  is  to  be  praised  elsewhere  as 
well  as  in  Zion,  and  he  continues  : 

'*  O  thou  that  hearest  prayer  1 
To  thee  shall  all  flesh  come  I " 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       205 

And,  as  if  to  make  more  obvious  the  breadth  of  his 
conception,  and  to  fit  this  song  to  be  the  prayer  of 
the  human  world,  he  adds  : 

"  They  who  dwell  in  the  ends  of  the  earth  are  awed  by  thy  signs ; 
Thou  makest  the  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  of  the  evening  to 
rejoice," 

It  is  a  holy  paean,  ending  in  this  burst  of  joy  : 

"  Thou  crownest  the  year  with  thy  goodness ; 
Thy  footsteps  drop  fruitfulness  ; 
They  drop  it  upon  the  pastures  of  the  wilderness, 
And  the  hills  are  girded  with  gladness. 
The  pastures  are  clothed  with  flocks, 
And  the  valleys  are  covered  with  com ; 
They  shout,  yea,  they  sing  for  joy." 

The  signs  of  wider  outlook  upon  the  world  in  the 
later  Jewish  writings  are  precious,  lack  of  breadth 
being  the  one  serious  drawback  to  the  old  piety.  The 
last  hateful  thing  to  dissociate  itself  from  the  religious 
sensibilities  of  this  people  was  their  enmity  toward 
their  neighbors.  This  was  rooted  in  the  traditional 
claim  that  they  were  a  chosen  people,  the  special 
charge  of  the  Almighty.  And  this  again  resulted  in 
their  investing  Him  with  the  same  enmities  they  felt 
themselves.  So  in  Law  and  Prophecy  and  in  many 
Psalms  we  find,  side  by  side  with  noble  and  tender 
pieties,  the  most  ruthless  animosities.  It  was  an 
immense  step  out  of  this  narrowness  into  the  breadth 


2o6        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  even  the  old  Greeks,  yet  a  step  that  had  to  be  taken 
before  a  final  and  satisfactory  spiritual  worship  could 
be  evolved.  A  grateful  hint  of  better  things  is  found 
here  and  there,  as  in  Job  3 1  :  29,  where  the  righteous 
sufferer  pleads  his  innocence  of  a  sin  for  which  he 
might  justly  have  been  punished  : 

"  If  I  have  rejoiced  at  the  destruction  of  him  that  hated  me, 
And  exulted  when  evil  came  upon  him  — 
(Nay,  I  have  not  suffered  my  mouth  to  sin 
By  asking  with  curses  his  life)." 

The  wide  outreaching,  to  embrace  in  a  common  fellow- 
ship of  worship,  in  Psalm  65,  is  paralleled  in  the  prayer 
in  Ecclesiasticus,  chapter  36,  which  came  out  of  the 
same  period.*  The  prayer  makes  appeal  to  "the  God 
of  all "  : 

"  Serfd  thy  fear  upon  all  the  nations, 
And  let  them  see  thy  mighty  power. 
As  thou  wast  sanctified  in  us  before  them, 
So  be  thou  magnified  in  them  before  us ; 
And  let  them  know  thee  as  we  also  have  known  thee.** 

Such  words  are  few  and  far  between  in  the  old 
literature ;  they  are  the  summits  from  which  an  en- 
lightened few  signaled  the  coming  of  a  better  day, 
when  the  heritage  of  Israel  should  broaden  out  to 


*  This,  however,  is  not  to  fix  the  date.     Both  psalm  and  prayer, 
if  the  prayer,  as  it  seems,  is  an  insertion,  are  later  than  Ben  Sira. 


Development  of  a  Spiritual  Worship       207 

bless  the  whole  round  earth,  and  when  it  could  be 
said  :  "  The  hour  is  coming  when  ye  shall  neither  on 
this  mountain  (Gerizim)  nor  in  Jerusalem  (exclusively) 
worship  the  Father.  The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is, 
when  the  true  worshipers  shall  worship  the  Father  in 
spirit  and  in  truth ;  for  such  worshipers  the  Father 
seeketh.  God  is  spirit ;  and  they  who  worship  must 
worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 


CHAPTER    IX. 
The  Old  Testament  Canon. 

Same  documents  are  in  our  Old  Testament  as  were  held  sacred  by 
the  Jews  before  our  era  —  Process  of  canonization  began  with 
the  finding  of  Deuteronomy  —  Had  great  extension  under  Ezra 
—  First  canon  consisted  of  the  Law  —  Second  and  inferior 
canon  of  the  Prophets  —  Date  of  this  uncertain,  but  after  432 
and  before  180  b.  c.  —  These  canons  closed,  no  additions  to  them 
possible  —  Third  canon  formed,  of  a  third  degree  of  sanctity  — 
Remaining  books  of  this  class  —  Question,  for  a  time,  regarding 
admission  of  some  of  them  —  Much  literature  not  included  — 
Date  of  this  canon  also  uncertain  —  Subsequent  to  130  B.  c. — 
Writings  had  to  be  reputed  of  considerable  age  to  be  admitted 
to  the  canon  —  Hence  marked  tendency  to  assume  for  documents 
a  false  antiquity  —  Myth  of  the  reproduction  of  the  whole  Bible 
(Old  Testament)  and  seventy  other  books  by  Esdras  (Ezra). 

WE  know  that  from  the  third  century  many 
books  were  written  among  the  Jews  which 
did  not  find  their  way  into  the  canonical 
scriptures,  such  books  being  still  extant.  Not  a  few 
earlier  writings,  now  lost,  shared  the  same  exclusion. 
The  question  arises,  on  what  principle  was  selection 
made,  and  by  what  authority  ?  It  is  well  now  to  have 
what  light  is  available  on  this  question. 

The  word  cmton  is  Greek,  and  means  primarily  a 


The  Old  'Testament  Canon  209 

measure,  a  rule ;  from  which  it  has  the  secondary 
sense  of  a  regulation,  a  standard ;  applied  to  the 
scriptures,  it  means  an  authorized  list,  selected,  meas- 
ured by  some  standard ;  and  so  a  standard  of  excel- 
lence by  which  other  things  can  be  measured.  It  is 
not  practicable  here  to  go  into  all  the  intricacies  and 
obscurities  involved  in  the  formation  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament canon,  but  the  main  points  which  alone  have  a 
popular  interest  may  be  set  forth. 

It  is  to  be  noted  in  the  first  place  that  we  have  in 
our  Protestant  bibles  precisely  the  same  documents  that 
Jewish  authorities  had  practically  decided  on  before 
the  Christian  era.  The  parts,  however,  are  not  ar- 
ranged in  the  same  order,  and  there  is  not  the  same 
number  of  books.  Instead  of  our  thirty-nine,  they  by 
combinations  made  only  twenty-four.  There  is  an 
obvious  absurdity  in  calling  a  leaflet  of  one  or  two 
pages  a  book,  to  avoid  which  they  combined  the  twelve 
minor  prophets  in  one  book,  called  "  The  Twelve  "  ; 
Samuel,  Kings,  and  Chronicles  were  not  needlessly 
divided  each  into  two  books ;  Nehemiah  went  in  with 
Ezra.  They  had  the  same  notion  of  the  supernatural 
origin  of  these  books  that  has  since  obtained,  regard- 
ing them  one  and  all  as  given  by  inspiration  of  God. 

But  this  idea  of  inspiration  was  itself  a  thing  of 
growth.     When  in  the  eighth  century  historians  and 


2IO        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

prophets  whose  works  are  preserved  began  to  write, 
the  books  they  produced  had  no  such  quality.  The 
prophet  to  be  sure  made  free  use  of  the  phrase  "  thus 
saith  Yahw^,"  but  this  did  not  then  give  his  utterance 
the  character  of  a  revelation ;  the  expression  was 
apparently  regarded  as  merely  a  mode  of  emphasis. 
Indeed,  the  books  of  the  first  prophets  and  the  proph- 
ets themselves  had  a  hard  time  to  maintain  an  exist- 
ence.* Amos  was  driven  out  of  the  kingdom  of 
Israel,  barely  escaping  with  his  life ;  the  words  of 
Hosea  were  spurned  by  those  who  heard  them  ;  when 
Jeremiah  sent  the  book  of  his  prophecies  to  the  king 
of  Judah  the  royal  hands  committed  it  to  the  flames. 
There  had  not  been,  up  to  that  time,  the  least  sign  of 
the  recognition  of  any  book  as  sacred,  except  possibly 
in  the  reverence  shown  to  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
supposed  to  contain  the  **  Ten  Words  "  of  Moses.  No 
writer  quotes  the  words  of  any  other  writer  or  refers 
to  any  book  as  sacred  scripture,!  but  the  references 
made  are  such  as  one  author  now  might  make  to 
another. 

With  the  finding  of  Deuteronomy  in  621  b.  c.  a 
change  is  seen.     That  book  begins  to  be  referred  to 


*See  Zech.  13:3-6. 

t  I.  Kings  2  :  3  and  II.  Kings  14  :  6  are  regarded  as  editorial  work 
after  621  B.  c. 


'T'he  Old  'Testament  Canon  in 

as  "  the  Law,"  and  takes  on  from  the  time  of  its  im- 
posing proclamation  the  character  of  a  holy  book. 
The  immediate  sponsors  for  its  pretensions  were  the 
king  and  court  and  the  priests  of  the  temple,  who  in 
their  council  over  the  question  called  in  the  aid  of  a 
prophetess.  These  made  up  together  a  judicial  body 
whose  authority  sufficed,  at  least  with  the  multitude. 
Some  murmuring  among  the  well-informed  there  prob- 
ably was ;  Jeremiah  seems  not  to  have  been  altogether 
pleased  with  the  importance  given  to  the  ritual,  mod- 
erate as  it  is  in  comparison  to  what  came  after ;  but 
on  the  whole  the  book  was  accepted  as  a  revelation  of 
the  Law  to  Moses,  and  became  at  once  sacrosanct. 
For  nearly  two  hundred  years  it  was  the  sole  writing 
so  regarded.  Direct  quotation  is  made  from  it  by 
writers  of  this  period,  and  it  is  always  referred  to 
with  absolute  reverence  as  the  Law  of  Yahw^  given 
by  Moses.  It  constituted  the  sum  total  of  the  word 
of  God  to  Israel,  and  it  was  only  the  substance  of  our 
present  book  of  Deuteronomy.  Thus  the  scriptural 
canon  began.  At  this  time  there  were  afloat  half- 
a-dozen  books  of  prophecy,  and  sundry  historical  and 
legendary  writings,  but  nobody  thought  of  them  as 
sacred  books.  No  addition  whatever  was  made  until 
Ezra  came  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem  "  with  the  word 
of  Yahwe  in  his  hand  "  and  read  it  to  the  assembled 


212        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

multitude  in  the  year  432  (revised  chronology).  The 
reading  was  finished  in  eight  days,  was  then  passed 
upon  by  the  great  synagogue,  solemnly  accepted  and 
sealed  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  the  month,  from 
which  time  Israel  had  a  very  much  enlarged  Bible ;  — 
how  much  enlarged  it  is  not  possible  to  say  with  pre- 
cision, but  certainly  by  nothing  less  than  the  extended 
Priestly  Law  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  fusing  of  this 
with  the  different  regulations  of  Deuteronomy,  the 
modification  of  the  latter  to  harmonize  with  the  new 
law,  the  addition  of  Genesis  and  Joshua,  followed  in 
the  next  few  years,  borne  in  on  the  tide  of  the  great 
reformation.  By  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century 
Israel  had  a  Bible  made  up  of  the  six  books  which 
together  are  called  the  Hexateuch.  This  was  the  first 
canon  consisting  of  a  collection  of  Sacred  Books,  and 
to  it  as  first  canon,  —  first  in  rank  as  well  as  in  time, 
having  the  highest  degree  of  sanctity,  —  nothing  was 
ever  added.  A  second  and  a  third  canon,  of  less  and 
still  less  sanctity,  were  formed  later  on ;  but  the  point 
to  be  here  fixed  in  mind  is  that,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century  b.  c,  and  for  a  considerable  time 
thereafter,  the  canon  included  the  books  of  the  Law 
(with  Genesis  and  Joshua),  and  nothing  more. 

Of  this  there  are  abundant  e\'idences.    One  is  that 
the  Samaritan  canon  never  got  beyond  this  stage,  but 


The  Old  Testament  Canon  213 

remained,  from  Ezra's  time  on,  limited  to  the  books 
of  the  Law.  So  of  course,  with  the  Samaritans,  the 
Torah  or  Law  was  always  synonymous  with  "  the 
scriptures."  They  knew  no  other  scriptures.  That 
this  for  a  time  was  the  case  with  the  Jews  is  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  they,  too,  could,  down  to  a  late  day, 
use  the  word  Law  in  the  sense  of  the  whole  body  of 
scripture,  a  custom  pointing  unmistakably  to  the  time 
when  it  was  such.  Thus  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  we 
have  Jesus  saying,  "  Is  it  not  written  in  your  Law,  *  I 
said  ye  are  gods ' .?  "  taking  the  expression  not  from 
the  Law  but  from  the  Psalms.  So  a  writer  of  one 
of  the  Pauline  epistles  (L  Cor.  14 :  21)  says,  **In  the 
Law  it  is  written  " —  and  quotes  a  passage  from  Isaiah. 
This,  as  Professor  Budde  says,  would  have  been  impos- 
sible if  the  words  "  canon  "  and  "  Law  "  had  not  orig- 
inally had  the  same  connotation,  other  books  at  a 
later  time  coming  in  for  a  share  of  the  reverence  at 
first  given  only  to  the  Law.  Finally,  we  have  in 
II.  Maccabees,  a  book  of  the  first  century  b:  c,  in  a 
letter  addressed  by  Jews  in  Jerusalem  to  their  brethren 
in  Egypt,  reference  to  a  Ubrary  which  one  of  them 
had  gathered  together  and  which  could  be  sent  to 
Egypt  if  desired.*     The  library  is  compared  to  one 


*  II.  Mac.  2:13. 


214       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Nehemiah  had,  said  to  contain  books  of  Kings  and 
Prophets,  Psalms  "of  David,"  and  letters  of  kings  — 
meaning  of  course  heathen  kings.  Evidently  books 
jumbled  together  in  this  fashion  with  letters  of  heathen 
kings,  and  called  a  **  library,"  could  not  have  been 
regarded  by  the  writer  and  his  circle  as  canonical 
books.  The  canonical  books  —  that  is,  the  books  of 
the  Law  —  are  not  mentioned  in  this  connection. 
They  are  not  reckoned  part  of  a  "library,"  but  are 
kept  aloof  by  themselves  as  things  sacred. 

Another  point :  when  a  book  comes  into  the  category 
of  sacred  writings  it  is  by  its  very  sanctity  lifted  into 
a  measure  of  security  from  changes  at  the  hands  of 
editors  and  revisers.  Now,  it  is  perfectly  evident 
that,  while  the  Law  remained  substantially  intact  from 
the  time  of  its  announcement,  the  histories,  prophecies, 
and  Wisdom  books  underwent  emendations  from  vari- 
ous hands,  some  of  the  books  receiving  large  additions, 
which  certainly  could  not  have  happened  had  they 
been  regarded  as  holy  books. 

The  formation  of  the  second  canon,  that  of  the 
prophets,  —  with  these  the  history  books  were  included 
as  being  in  a  way  prophetic,  —  is  not  so  definitely 
determinable  either  as  to  time  or  means.  We  find,  at 
various  dates  after  Ezra,  that  these  books  were  not 
canonical ;  and,  at  a  yet  later  date,  we  find  that  they 


1'he  Old  T'es lament  Canon  215 

are  canonical ;  but  the  exact  time  when  the  change 
took  place,  or  the  manner  of  it,  is  not  clear.  The 
rabbinical  tradition  that  there  existed  a  council  or 
assembly  of  learned  priests  and  scribes  whose  business 
it  was  to  pass  upon  such  matters  has  no  historical 
support.  The  "great  synagogue,"  which  has  been 
imagined  to  be  such  a  body,  and  which  did  accept  the 
Book  of  the  Law  as  revelation,  was  no  other  than  the 
popular  assembly  of  thousands  to  whom  the  book  was 
read  by  Ezra.  It  was  the  voice  of  the  people,  influ- 
enced to  be  sure  by  the  priests,  that  pronounced  on 
the  question  in  that  case ;  and  we  may  presume  decis- 
ion was  made  by  the  same  authority  in  subsequent 
cases,  though  apparently  not  in  the  same  manner  It 
is  unlikely  that  the  prophetic  books  were  all  elevated 
to  the  rank  of  sacred  scripture  at  once ;  some  of  them, 
known  as  Former  Prophets,  had  acquired  a  quasi- 
sacred  character  before  the  exile,  and  these  would  be 
the  first  to  come  into  full  acceptance.  The  steps 
toward  even  this,  however,  were  slow,  resisted  doubt- 
less by  the  priests,  who  as  guardians  of  the  Law  were 
naturally  indisposed  to  have  any  rivals  set  up  for  the 
people's  reverence.  But  when  once  the  three  great 
prophets  had  won  their  way,  the  rest  were  sure  of 
ultimately  attaining  the  same  sanctity. 

Though  we  are  in  the  dark  as  to  the  stages  of  this 


2i6        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

process,  we  are  able  to  fix  a  date  before  which  it  must 
have  been  completed.  In  Ecclesiasticus,  which  was 
written  1 80  b.  c.  or  a  few  years  earlier,  the  works  of 
the  prophets  are  referred  to  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  at  all  that  they  had  then  come  to  be  consid- 
ered canonical.  The  writer  praises  them  all  as  next 
in  honor  after  the  Law.  He  speaks  of  the  twelve 
minor  prophets  in  a  manner  to  indicate  that  they  were 
already  inscribed  on  one  roll.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century,  then,  the  second  canon,  the  canon 
of  the  Prophets,  had  been  formed.  How  it  was  done 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  That  it  was  by  formal 
action  of  any  authoritative  body  there  is  no  evidence. 

When  in  432  the  canon  of  the  Law  was  formed, 
the  idea  was  that  the  Law  had  then  been  given  in  full ; 
no  further  legal  commands  were  to  be  issued  from  on 
high.  So  the  canonization  of  prophecy  was  deferred 
till,  as  was  supposed,  the  last  word  of  prophecy  had 
been  spoken.  This  step  once  fully  taken,  it  was  as 
impossible  to  admit  another  prophecy  as  to  admit 
another  law-book.  So  when,  in  165  b.  c,  a  belated 
prophecy  did  arrive,  under  the  name  of  Daniel,  it 
could  not  be  admitted  into  this  second  canon.  The 
book  was  never  formally  reckoned  by  the  Jews  as  a 
prophecy,  and  had  to  take  its  place  in  a  third  canon 
known  as  the  canon  of  Writings.     This  fact  has  a 


ne  Old  'Testament  Canon  217 

double  implication  :  first,  that  Daniel  was  not  written, 
as  formerly  supposed,  in  the  period  of  the  exile,  for 
had  it  been  it  would  surely  have  been  counted  among 
the  prophetical  books ;  and  secondly,  that  some  time 
before  Daniel  was  written  the  canon  of  prophecy  was 
closed. 

There  was,  then,  a  period,  the  length  of  which  we 
cannot  precisely  state,  when  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
consisted  solely  of  these  two  divisions,  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets.  And  this  period  was  sufficiently  long 
to  establish  a  habit  of  speaking  of  the  Bible  as  "  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets  " —  habit  persistent  enough  to 
continue  long  after  the  third  canon  was  formed.  Just 
as  the  older  custom  of  referring  to  the  Old  Testament 
as  the  "  Law "  pointed  to  the  time  when  only  the 
Hexateuch  was  canonized,  so  reference  to  it  as  "  the 
Law  and  the  Prophets  "  was  a  survival  from  the  time 
when  as  yet  the  Psalms  and  the  Wisdom  books  had 
not  been  admitted  to  the  canon. 

So  far  we  have  the  first  canon,  which  included  only 
the  Hexateuch,  established  toward  the  close  of  the 
fifth  century;  and  the  second  canon,  —  that  of  the 
prophets  and  history  books.  Judges,  Samuel,  and 
Kings,  —  formed,  it  would  seem,  toward  the  close  of 
the  third  century,  though  not  universally  accepted  till 
considerably  later.    But  this  leaves  without  recognition 


21 8        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

2l  number  of  books  which  were  written  before  the 
second  canon  was  closed,  and  which  nevertheless 
ultimately  found  their  way  into  the  scripture  collec- 
tion ;  so,  at  a  later  date  there  must  have  been  formed 
a  third  canon.  As  this  was  brought  about  within  a 
period  of  which  we  are  better  informed,  we  may  hope 
to  learn  something  definite  about  it. 

The  difficulty  of  extending  the  list  of  sacred  books 
had  been  rather  increased  than  diminished  by  the 
multiplicity  of  candidates  for  canonization.  Besides 
the  writings  dating  from  before  the  close  of  the  second 
canon,  say  about  the  end  of  the  third  century,  a  con- 
siderable mass  of  religious  literature  with  certain 
claims  of  recognition  had  appeared  by  the  time  the 
question  of  a  third  canon  arose.  How  considerable 
the  mass  of  these  writings  was  may  be  inferred  from 
the  tradition  that  the  rejected  books  numbered  almost 
exactly  three  times  the  whole  number  of  books  in 
the  Old  Testament  as  finally  arranged  by  the  Jewish 
authorities.*  Keen  discrimination  certainly  was  used  ; 
on  what  principles  was  it  taken } 

The  first  principle  acted  on  was,  that  the  age  of 
inspiration  was  long  past  ;  that  it  closed  in  fact  with 
the  announcement  of  the  Law  by  Ezra;   no  work, 


*  II.  Esd.  14  :  44  f. 


The  Old  Testament  Canon  219 

therefore,  could  be  admitted  which  was  not  written 
before  the  time  of  the  Great  Assembly  (432).  This 
at  once  cut  off  all  books  frankly  of  late  authorship, 
such  as  Maccabees  and  Ecclesiasticus.  But  many  of 
the  books  either  assumed  to  be  old  enough,  or  had 
nothing  about  them  to  indicate  their  youth  to  uncrit- 
ical eyes ;  and  a  number  of  these  succeeded  in  passing 
muster,  though  some  of  them  as  by  the  skin  of  the 
teeth. 

The  books  included  in  the  third  canon,  receiving 
the  inferior  designation  of  "Writings" — sometimes 
"  Traditions  " —  are  Ruth,  Chronicles,  Ezra-Nehemiah, 
Esther,  Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles, 
Lamentations,  and  Daniel.  Modern  criticism  makes 
the  writing  of  all  these,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
of  the  Psalms,  subsequent  to  Ezra's  Reformation ; 
but  criticism  was  not  developed  at  the  time  of  the 
third  canon ;  and  these  books,  most  of  which  assumed 
to  be  the  work  of  some  ancient  worthy,  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  passing  as  of  the  required  age.  Ruth,  being 
a  story  of  which  the  scene  is  laid  in  the  time  of  the 
Judges,  excited  no  suspicion ;  Job  was  believed  to  be 
of  yet  higher  antiquity;  the  Psalms  attached  them- 
selves to  the  name  of  David  ;  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes, 
and  Canticles  to  Solomon  ;  Lamentations  to  Jere- 
miah ;  Daniel  assumed  to  be  out  of  the  early  Persian 


220       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

period,  as  did  also  Esther.  Hence  all  these  on  the 
face  of  them  had  the  requisite  years.  Chronicles  and 
Ezra-Nehemiah  are  now  considered  the  work  of  one 
author,  forming  originally  one  book.  The  latter,  as 
containing  the  record  of  the  canonization  of  the  books 
of  the  Law,  was  separated  from  Chronicles  and  ad- 
mitted without  hesitation.  Chronicles,  as  Professor 
Budde  thinks,  barely  squeezed  in,  and  then  only  as  an 
appendix.  Ecclesiastes  met  with  no  little  opposition, 
notwithstanding  what  purported  to  be  the  Solomonic 
signature.  But  ultimately  the  list  was  accepted,  and 
the  last  step  taken  in  the  canonization  of  the  books 
of  the  Jewish  Scriptures. 

Here  too,  as  in  the  case  of  the  second  canon,  it  is 
not  possible  to  fix  upon  the  exact  date  at  which  the 
work  was  accomplished.  In  both  cases  the  process, 
we  may  be  sure,  was  gradual,  some  books  arriving  at 
the  goal  early,  acclaimed  with  eagerness  and  unanimity, 
some  lagging  behind  and  accepted  as  sacred  with 
doubt  and  hesitancy.  And  we  must  avoid  the  fancy 
that  decision  was  taken  by  any  formal  action  such  as 
the  vote  of  a  deliberative  assembly.  There  is  no 
slightest  evidence  of  anything  of  the  kind  in  the  pre- 
Christian  centuries.  At  best,  therefore,  we  could  only 
hope  to  trace  the  beginning  of  the  gradual  process 
and  determine  the  time  within  which  it  was  restricted. 


"the  Old  Testament  Canon  221 

The  prologue  to  Ecclesiasticus,  which  was  prefixed 
to  the  book  about  130  b.  c,  indicates  clearly  that  at 
that  time  the  growth  of  a  third  canon  had  not  begun. 
I.  Maccabees,  written  about  100  b.  c,  has  this  sign  of 
the  beginning  of  the  new  canon  —  it  cites  a  Psalm, 
the  79th,  and  cites  it  expressly  as  Holy  Scripture. 
By  the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  Pauline  epistles  and 
Luke's  Gospel,  the  process  had  gone  far,  as  they  refer 
to  more  than  one  of  the  books  in  like  manner.  But 
it  is  noteworthy  that  some  of  the  books  of  this  canon 
are  nowhere  quoted  or  in  any  way  referred  to  in  the 
New  Testament.  These  are  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles, 
Esther,  and  Ezra.  Though  this  proves  nothing,  it 
does  leave  uncertain  the  completion  of  the  canon  of 
the  Old  Testament  in  New  Testament  times. 

We  are  able,  however,  from  other  testimony,  to  fix 
upon  a  date  when  the  process  was  definitely  com- 
pleted. At  the  Council  of  Jewish  rabbis  held  at 
Jamnia  about  a.  d.  100  the  canon  was  formally  dis- 
cussed, and,  though  lingering  objections  were  made 
to  one  or  two  of  the  later  books,  the  objections  were 
overwhelmingly  set  aside  and  the  discussion  closed 
for  all  time. 

The  fact  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that,  in  the  Jewish 
accounting,  the  canon  always  remained  tripartite,  hav- 
ing three  degrees  of  holiness.     The  highest  degree 


222        l.'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

belongs  to  the  first  part,  the  Law ;  the  second  degree 
to  the  prophets  (and  old  histories) ;  the  third  and 
lowest  degree  to  the  eleven  books  of  the  last  added 
scriptures.  The  illusive  accepted  notion  concerning 
the  age  and  origin  of  the  books  of  the  Law,  the  im- 
posing representation  of  their  deliverance  to  Moses 
amidst  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  and  of  the  marvelous 
manifestations  of  Yahw^  to  Moses,  left  no  room  for 
doubt  that  God  in  that  time  revealed  Himself  as  He 
never  did  afterward.  The  words  He  is  said  then  to 
have  spoken  had  a  sanctity  unapproachable.  From 
that  age  He  retired  away  from  the  world,  never  again 
showing  Himself  as  before.  To  the  prophets  He 
spoke,  but  only  vaguely  in  visions  and  dreams,  and 
their  authority  paled  before  that  of  Sinai  wreathed 
in  smoke  and  flaming  with  fire.  In  the  books  of 
the  third  canon  He  is  so  far  removed  that  His  voice 
is  scarcely  heard  any  more.  The  writers  hardly 
venture  any  more  the  prophetic  affirmation:  "Thus 
saith  Yahw^."  They  fall  to  relating  the  great  dis- 
closures He  made  in  other  days,  to  singing  of  the 
glories  that  have  been,  and  to  reasoning  about  plain 
human  duties,  such  utterances  being  all  that  remain 
for  the  later  and  duller  times.  Not  even  the  pushing 
back  of  the  last  writings  into  a  time  where  they  do 
not  belong  could  save  them  from  this  contrast  with 


The  Old  Testament  Canon  223 

the  works  that  went  before.  The  old  intimacy  of  the 
speaker  with  God  is  gone ;  the  most  to  which  one  will 
pretend  is  a  communication  from  an  angel,  Gabriel  or 
Michael.  There  is  the  constant  concession  that  no 
word  of  God  can  be  spoken  to  compare  for  a  moment 
with  the  Law,  or  even  with  the  Prophets. 

With  Jews  of  New  Testament  times  it  was  a  felt 
necessity  to  clothe  the  writings  of  the  second  and 
third  canons  with  an  antiquity  of  at  least  five  hundred 
years ;  to  crowd  them  all  up  toward  the  time  when 
God  held  converse  with  men.  As  already  remarked, 
the  restrictive  rule  in  the  formation  of  these  canons 
was  that  no  writing  had  any  claim  to  be  called  Holy 
Scripture  which  was  not  produced  as  early  as  Ezra's 
deliverance  of  the  Law.  To  make  it  appear  certain 
that  this  principle  was  strictly  applied,  the  story  was 
concocted,  and  is  told  in  Esdras  (IL  Esd.  14),  that 
by  some  sweeping  accident  every  copy  of  the  script- 
ures in  existence  was  burned  up,  and  that  Yahw^ 
commissioned  Ezra  to  reproduce  the  whole  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  For  this  purpose  the  scribe  retired 
forty  days,  taking  with  him  five  amanuenses  "  And 
it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,"  he  says,  "that  a 
voice  called  me,  saying.  Open  thy  mouth  and  drink 
what  I  give  thee  to  drink.  Then  opened  I  my  mouth, 
and  behold,  there  was  reached  to  me  a  full  cup,  filled, 


224        ^^^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

as  it  were,  with  water,  but  the  color  of  it  was  like  fire. 
And  I  took  it  and  drank ;  and  when  I  had  drunk  of 
it  my  heart  uttered  understanding,  and  wisdom  grew 
in  my  breast,  for  my  spirit  retained  its  memory ;  and 
my  mouth  was  opened,  and  shut  no  more.  The  Most 
High  gave  understanding  to  the  five  men,  and  they 
wrote  by  course  the  things  that  were  told  them,  in 
characters  which  they  knew  not,  and  they  sat  forty 
days.  As  for  me,  I  spake  in  the  daytime  and  by 
night  I  held  not  my  tongue.  So  in  forty  days  were 
written  fourscore  and  fourteen  books."  Thus  the 
writer,  who  was  contemporary  with  the  authors  of  the 
earliest  gospels,  would  cut  off  the  possibility  of  any 
part  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  being  less  than  five 
hundred  years  old  at  that  time.  But  the  principal 
interest  of  his  fabulous  story  lies  in  the  number  of 
the  books  said  to  have  been  reproduced.  The  Jews, 
it  will  be  remembered,  so  combine  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  as  to  make  of  them  only  twenty-four ; 
so  Esdras'  ninety-four  were  seventy  in  excess  of  the 
canon ;  and  the  curious  thing  is,  he  considers  these 
seventy  uncanonical  books  superior  to  the  canonical, 
too  deep  to  be  appreciated  by  the  multitude,  fit  to  be 
reserved  for  the  wise.  He  says :  "  The  Most  High 
spake  unto  me,  saying,  *The  first  that  thou  hast 
written  publish  openly,  and  let  the  worthy  and  the  un- 


^he  Old  'Testament  Canon  225 

worthy  read  it ;  but  keep  the  seventy  last,  that  thou 
mayest  deliver  them  to  such  as  be  wise  among  thy 
people ;  for  in  them  is  the  spring  of  understanding, 
the  fountain  of  wisdom,  and  the  stream  of  knowl- 
edge." Among  these  seventy  books  of  transcendent 
excellence  he  doubtless  meant  to  include  documents 
he  himself  was  then  —  about  a.  d.  90  —  writing  in 
the  name  of  Ezra,  dead  five  hundred  years  before. 
But  hardly  less  preposterous  theories  of  the  scriptures 
have  held  on  well  down  into  these  days. 

The  excellence  of  the  Bible  rests  not  merely  on  the 
genius  of  the  individual  writers,  it  rests  also  on  the 
just  discrimination  which  selected  these  writings  out 
of  a  nation's  literature  as  worthiest  of  reverence,  and 
preserved  them  by  an  efficient  though  a  factitious 
badge  of  distinction  Not  all  the  standards  of  judg- 
ment were  sound,  but  the  result,  on  the  whole,  is  so 
noble  as  to  be  an  unimpeachable  testimony  to  the 
good  taste,  the  clear  judgment,  the  ethical  perspicacity, 
the  spiritual  discernment  of  the  Jewish  people ;  for 
whether  or  not  in  Lawgiver,  Prophet,  Sage,  and 
Psalmist  we  have  the  voice  of  God,  in  the  canon  we 
have  unmistakably  the  voice  of  the  people. 


NEW  TESTAMENT 


CHAPTER   X. 
The  Gospel  Sources. 

Coming  to  the  New  Testament  from  the  Old  —  Agreements  and 
contrasts  —  Absence  of  literary  men  among  the  immediate  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  —  The  making  of  a  record  left  to  the  next  gen- 
eration —  Many  gospel  narratives  at  length  appear  —  Papias' 
declaration  of  the  need  of  sifting  these  to  get  at  the  facts  — 
Probability  that  fragments  of  writing,  made  by  contemporaries, 
touching  Jesus,  his  word  and  work,  were  in  existence,  copies  if 
not  originals,  when  our  gospels  were  made  —  These  would  be 
their  most  trustworthy  sources  —  Such  the  Logia,  or  Sayings, 
of  Jesus  —  Gospel  writers  knit  these  together  with  oral  tradition 
into  connected  narrative  —  Growth  of  legend  —  Indications  on 
which  the  genuineness  of  an  utterance  attributed  to  Jesus  may 
be  predicated. 

IN  passing  from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New,  the 
most  casual  reading  shows  marked  divergences  and 
equally  marked  coincidences.  In  the  doctrine  of 
God  there  is  no  sudden  change,  but  a  continuation  of 
that  development  which  we  have  already  traced  through 
more  than  a  thousand  years.  The  divine  tenderness 
receives  more  emphasis ;  God  is  commonly  called  by 
a  more  endearing  name ;  still  the  idea  in  the  gospels 
is  essentially  the  same  as  in  the  later  psalms.  Sim- 
ilarly with  the  ethical  teaching.    No  abrupt  departure 


230        I'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

is  seen  save  as  the  Gospel  is  contrasted  with  the  old 
Law  ;  with  the  later  Wisdom  writings  it  is  in  substan- 
tial harmony,  or  at  least  grows  out  of  them  quite  nat- 
urally. The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  collides  here  and 
there  with  the  Pentateuch,  but  not  with  Proverbs.    If 

I  Jesus  by  implication  condemns  Joshua,  he  accorcis 
with  Job.  Step  by  step  down  the  centuries  we  ap- 
proach the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament.  But  in 
other  respects  this  part  of  the  Bible  is  in  striking  con- 
trast with  what  went  before.  The  New  Testament 
forms  itself  around  a  personality.  To  begin  with,  we 
have  four  biographies  of  this  hero.  In  the  older 
scriptures  there  is  nothing  that  approaches  a  biog- 
raphy. The  book  of  Acts  continues  for  a  step  the 
story  of  the  hero,  the  epistles  are  largely  devoted  to 
developing  a  doctrine  concerning  him,  and  the  Apoc- 
alypse has  him  winding  up  the  affairs  of  this  world. 
So  the  whole  volume  is  distinctly  Christocentric. 
There  is  nothing  corresponding  to  this  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Aside  from  the  four  Law  books,  which 
are  co-related,  each  book  there  has  a  purpose  of  its 
own,  and  is  practically  independent  of  every  other ; 
the  parts  have  no  necessary  connection,  do  not  cluster 
around  an  individual  or  an  idea.  In  the  matter  of 
form,  too,  we  note  the  total  absence  of  verse  in  the 
New  Testament,  while  in  the  original  Hebrew  of  the 


The  Gospel  Sources  131 

Old  Testament  there  are  half  as  many  pages  of  verse 
as  of  prose.  As  literary  productions  the  later  writings 
are  not  up  to  the  high  mark  set  by  some  of  the  earlier ; 
they  depend  for  their  strength  almost  wholly  on  their 
content.  Another  point  of  distinction  is  that  while 
the  prophets  of  the  previous  time  wrote  out  their  own 
words,  the  prophet  of  Nazareth,  as  far  as  we  know, 
wrote  nothing.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  he  instructed 
anybody  to  commit  his  sayings  to  writing.  This 
seems  the  more  remarkable  when  we  take  into  account 
the  importance  he  himself  set  on  these  sayings  (Matt. 
24 :  35  ;  Mark  8  :  38  ;  Luke  21  :  33  ;  John  12  :  48). 
Very  notable  is  it,  too,  considering  the  importance  the 
world  has  since  accorded  them,  that  for  a  good  many 
years,  as  far  as  we  can  now  judge,  nobody  thought  of 
writing  them*  out  to  any  considerable  extent.  This 
would  imply  that  among  the  immediate  disciples  of 
Jesus  there  were  no  literary  men.  Surely,  if  they 
had  included  a  Philo,  or  a  Josephus,  the  result  would 
have  been  different. 

Just  what  was  done  toward  the  making  of  a  record 
by  those  who  had  seen  Jesus  and  listened  to  him,  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  The  book  of  Acts,  which  under- 
takes to  narrate  the  doings  of  the  apostles  after  the 
crucifixion,  was  not  written,  according  to  present 
opinion,  till  near  one  hundred  years  after  that  event, 


232        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

and  so  is  not  decisive  as  to  what  went  on ;  but  the 
absence  in  that  work  of  any  allusion  to  a  life  or  sketch 
of  Jesus  having  been  made  by  an  apostle  is  noteworthy, 
for  if  any  one  of  them  had  done  such  a  thing  it  would 
naturally  be  reckoned  among  the  chief  of  the  acts 
of  the  apostles.  Still,  that  they  should  all  have 
died  without  doing  something  of  this  kind  implies  a 
stolidity  and  a  lack  of  provision  for  the  needs  of  the 
future  Church  hard  to  suppose.  What  we  are  told  by 
the  writer  of  Acts  is  that  he,  who  was  not  one  of  the 
twelve  nor  even  a  pupil  of  one  of  them,  had  written 
such  a  work,  presumably  the  Third  Gospel,  at  the  be- 
ginning of  which  we  have  the  statement  that,  before 
him,  many  had  set  their  hand  to  the  same  task ;  and 
he  leaves  us  to  infer  that  none  of  them  had  written 
with  any  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the  subject  than 
had  he.  "  Many  "  is  a  word  not  used  to  designate  two 
or  three,  it  means  a  considerable  number ;  so  this 
writer  must  have  had  in  mind  other  writings  in  addi- 
tion to  Matthew  and  Mark.  What  these  were  is 
almost  entirely  matter  of  conjecture,  but  included  in 
them  must  be  the  sources  from  which  the  gospels  as 
we  have  them,  particularly  the  first  three,  were  largely 
drawn. 

In  direct  and  explicit  reference  to  these  sources  the 
writers  of  the  early  Christian  period  are  exasperatingly 


The  Gospel  Sources  233 

lacking.  Papias,  a  bishop  of  Phrygian  Hierapolis  in 
the  first  half  of  the  second  century,  and  the  author  of 
some  books  of  which  extracts  have  been  preserved  in 
Eusebius,  is  the.  earliest  authority  from  whom  we  have 
anything  definite.  In  his  time  the  necessity  was  com- 
ing to  be  felt  for  a  selection  of  an  authoritative  record 
of  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus,  from  the  many  and 
conflicting  accounts  afloat.  Papias  himself  was  dis- 
pleased with  most  of  the  writings  in  circulation  deal- 
ing with  the  period  in  question,  which  he  designates 
as  "voluminous  falsehoods," and  set  his  heart  on  find- 
ing out  the  facts  from  the  lips  of  those  who  had 
received  them  from  "  the  disciples  of  the  Lord."  He 
may  have  seen  the  daughters  of  Philip  the  evangelist, 
who  dwelt  in  his  native  city  about  the  time  he  was 
growing  into  manhood.  From  such  researches  as  he 
could  make  he  concluded  that  to  the  Commandments 
then  current  as  "  given  from  the  Lord  to  the  Faith  " 
should  be  added  as  of  authority  certain  sayings  of  the 
apostles,  preserved  by  the  Elders  and  by  the  success- 
ors of  the  Elders  appointed  by  them.  He  mentions 
also  approvingly  a  writing  by  Mark,  whom  he  calls  the 
interpreter  of  Peter  (meaning,  perhaps,  that  he  put 
into  Greek  what  he  heard  from  Peter,  who  spoke  only 
Aramaic),  and  a  compilation  by  Matthew,  which  had 
received  many  "interpretations."     He  says  nothing 


234        'fhe  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  any  other  of  our  gospels,  from  which  it  is  inferred 
that  the  Third  and  Fourth  gospels  had  not  then  come 
into  general  acceptance. 

The  chief  interest  of  Papias*  account  lies  in  the 
representation  he  plainly  makes  that  there  was  current, 
within  a  hundred  years  from  the  crucifixion,  a  consid- 
erable mass  of  literature  dealing  with  the  gospel 
period ;  so  much,  in  fact,  and  so  varied,  that  the 
reader  was  confused  and  embarrassed  by  the  disagree- 
ment of  one  account  with  another.  The  records 
needed  to  be  sifted  and  set  in  order.  This  is  pre- 
cisely what  Luke*  undertook  to  do,  as  he  tells  in  his 
preface  :  "  Forasmuch  as  many  have  taken  in  hand  to 
draw  up  a  narrative  concerning  those  matters  which 
have  been  fulfilled  among  us,  it  seemed  good  to  me 
also,  having  accurately  traced  up  all  things  from  the 
first,  to  write  to  thee  a  connected  account." 

We  are  debarred,  therefore,  from  supposing  that 
our  gospels  were  the  only,  or  the  first,  writings  of  the 
kind,  dealing  with  the  same  events..  From  careful 
study  of  these  gospels,  critics  long  since  inferred  the 
existence,  at  the  time  they  were  written,  of  earlier 
records  of  which  the  evangelists  made  a  free  use. 
Clearly  enough  to  be  made  out  were  writings  known 


*  The  customary  names  of  the  four  evangelists  are  used  in  th» 
treatise  without  implication  as  to  actual  authorship. 


The  Gospel  Sources  235 

as  the  "  Sayings  (Logia)  of  Jesus,"  which,  besides  his 
words,  may  have  contained  some  narratives  of  his 
ministry ;  and,  back  of  our  Mark,  could  be  posited  an 
original  Mark  somewhat  different ;  but  Luke's  state- 
ment implies  that  there  were  more  than  these,  and  it 
is  now  believed  that  gospel  records  of  one  kind  and 
another  were  quite  numerous.  These  it  would  be  the 
business  of  a  person  undertaking  a  fresh  sketch  to  go 
over,  using  and  combining  the  material  according  to 
his  best  judgment.  This  is  what  the  writers  of  our\ 
first  three  gospels  did,  and  they  are  properly  called 
synoptists  because,  from  the  mass  of  what  they  had  be- 
fore them,  they  give  a  synopsis  of  Jesus'  career,  though 
the  original  use  of  the  designation  by  Griesbach  was 
to  mark  the  fact  that  the  three  have  a  common  view. 
These  sources  of  our  gospels,  with  the  exception  of 
fragments  quoted  by  the  Church  Fathers  or  gleaned 
from  excavations,  have  perished.  If  we  had  them  in 
hand  now  there  would  be  the  felt  necessity  of  seeking 
out  their  sources,  for  they,  for  the  most  part,  we  may  be 
sure,  were  not  the  original  Christian  writings.  They, 
too,  depended  on  records  that  preceded  them,  up  to  a 
date  closely  following  the  termination  of  the  ministry 
of  Jesus.  Criticism  based  on  this  theory  has  only 
just  begun,  but  that  something  can  be  done  with  it 
even  on  the  existing  text  has  been  shown,    Thus,  a 


2^6       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

study  of  Mark  9 :  33-42,  an  excellently  well  authenti- 
cated passage,  discloses  four  successive  layers  of  tra- 
dition back  of  the  last  narrator.*  Other  passages  will 
yield  as  striking  a  result. 

Just  as  it  was  absurd  to  suppose  (as  many  once  did, 
notwithstanding  Luke's  preface)  that  our  gospels  were 
the  first  biographical  sketches  of  Jesus,  —  the  least 
scientific  study  of  them  necessitating  the  supposition 
of  sources  from  which  they  were  drawn,  —  so  is  it 
absurd  to  hold  these  sources,  which  could  not  long 
have  antedated  the  gospels,  the  first  work  of  the  kind 
to  be  undertaken.  It  has  been  urged,  in  apology  for 
such  an  assumed  irrational  silence  for  thirty  or  forty 
years,  that  the  early  Christian  expectation  of  a  speedy 
return  of  the  Master  "in  power  and  great  glory" 
withheld  the  contemporaries  of  Jesus,  and  even  the 
following  generation,  from  realizing  that  there  was 
any  need  of  making  this  provision  for  the  Church. 
Some  influence  such  expectation  may  have  had ;  yet 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  Second  Adventists  of  our 
day  are  not  generally  neglectful  of  even  the  earthly 
needs  of  their  children  and  children's  children,  so 
that  we  may  well  believe  that  an  expectation  similar 
to  theirs  was  not  a  very  potent  reason  with  the  first 


*  For  the  interesting  working  out  of  this,  see  Encyclopaedia  Bib- 
lica,  column  1865. 


The  Gospel  Sources  237 

Christians  for  delaying  a  spiritual  provision  for  their 
children. 

No  doubt  much  was  done  orally  from  the  first  to 
preserve  and  perpetuate  the  gospel  teaching ;  but  an 
intelligent  and  educated  class  would  not  stop  with 
that,  and  we  may  be  sure  there  were  Christians  in 
apostolic  times  who  were  educated  and  intelligent. 
Some  such  persons  must  have  been  among  the  assem- 
blies that  listened  to  Jesus,  and  it  would  be  strange 
indeed  if,  in  many  instances,  minutes  of  what  he  said 
were  not  made  by  admiring  auditors.  His  ministry 
was  so  short,  lasting  probably  not  more  than  a  year, 
that  there  was  not  time  for  these  memoranda  to  get 
lost  before  the  shock  of  his  arrest  and  shameful  execu- 
tion gave  them  a  signal  value  as  the  nucleus  of  a  kind 
of  gospel-writing  which  then  in  all  probability  imme- 
diately began.  Many  an  ardent  disciple,  having  a  few 
notes,  would  add  to  them  from  memory,  and  the  result 
would  be  copied  and  distributed  among  the  faithful. 
The  next  step  would  be  that  a  few,  of  literary  gifts, 
having  a  collection  of  these  scraps,  would  weave  them 
together  into  a  connected  account,  with  some  local 
coloring.  These  collections  would  be  circulated,  and 
the  original  fragments  out  of  which  they  were  made 
would  cease  to  be  prized,  and  would  pass  out  of  exist- 
ence.    The  collections,  having  as  yet  nothing  of  the 


23  S        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

character  of  sacred  scriptures,  and  differing  materially 
among  themselves,  would  be  subject  to  change  in  the 
hands  of  the  disciples,  who  would  feel  free  to  modify 
or  suppress  what  did  not  accord  with  their  recollection, 
and  to  add  what  they  knew  to  be  omitted.  In  this 
way,  in  a  few  years,  a  set  of  more  complete  collections 
would  be  formed,  and  these  would  supersede  the  first, 
which  would  be  set  aside  and  be  no  more  heard  of. 
This  process,  we  may  be  very  confident,  went  on  down 
to  the  time  of  the  writing  of  our  gospels,  and  with 
varying  results.  As  doctrines  of  one  kind  and  another 
began  to  spring  up  they  would  be  woven  in  by  their 
advocates,  and  a  state  of  things  would  arise  such  as 
Papias  complains  of,  when  there  would  be  a  felt  need 
of  getting  back  to  first  traditions.  The  chief  task  of 
the  compiler  became  then  the  very  reverse  of  what  it 
had  been ;  he  must  delete  and  abridge  the  work  of  his 
predecessors  ;  good  taste  and  good  judgment  were  his 
main  requisites.  Our  gospels,  we  may  be  sure,  are 
very  much  less  bulky  than  were  their  sources  taken 
together.  We  know  of  the  sources  little  more  than 
what  the  gospels  suggest  of  them.  The  omissions  we 
are  unable  much  to  trace,  but  no  one  can  read  the 
Oxyrhynchus  fragment  of  the  "  Sayings  of  Jesus  " 
without  getting  some  idea  of  the  careful  excision  per- 
formed by  the  final  editors  of  the  gospels.    Fortunately 


^he  Gospel  Sources  239 

the  older  documents  had  not  been  canonized,  and, 
while  this  permitted  their  distortion  and  corruption  in 
the  hands  of  the  weak,  the  designing,  and  the  super- 
stitious, it  enabled  the  men  of  good  sense  and  right 
spirit  to  deal  with  them  rigorously. 

An  interesting  question  arises  as  to  the  order  in 
which  the  different  elements  of  the  gospel  story 
formed  themselves  in  the  sources.  Did  the  wordsy 
or  the  reported  acts  of  Jesus  have  precedence  ?  or 
were  they  both  recorded  together  at  each  stage  ? 

The  fact  that  the  collections  were  called  Logia, 
**  Sayings,"  although  in  their  later  forms  they  appear 
to  have  contained  some  narrative,  points  to  a  time 
when,  as  the  name  imports,  they  were  composed 
exclusively  of  the  words  of  Jesus.  Assuming  this 
to  have  been  the  case,  the  first  form  of  narrative 
to  attach  itself  to  the  discourses  would  be  a  simple 
itinerary  connecting  them  together.  Gradually,  as 
time  went  by,  additional  incidents  would  be  inserted 
as  one  and  another  person  called  them  to  mind.  And 
after  ten  or  twenty  years,  as  legends  of  Jesus  began 
to  grow  and  it  was  coming  to  be  thought  that  he  was 
something  more  than  man,  and  was  freely  called  Christ 
and  Lord,  some  of  the  marvelous  stories  which  had 
passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  found  their  way  into 
these  writings.      This  kind  of   thing,  once  started, 


240        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

grew  apace,  and  continued  its  growth  long  after  the 
writing  of  our  accepted  gospels,  as  is  shown  from  the 
fact  that  miraculous  incidents  not  found  in  the  oldest 
appear  in  later  gospels,  and  even  in  later  manuscripts 
of  the  same  gospel.  As  a  rule,  miracle-stories  are 
not  told  by  eye-witnesses  of  the  asserted  marvels,  rior 
in  the  lifetime  of  any  possible  eye-witnesses;  they 
have  to  be  set  in  a  somewhat  hazy  past,  quite  beyond 
the  reach  of  investigation.  People  nafvely  say  now, 
"the  days  of  miracles  are  past,"  all  unconscious  that 
the  generations  before  them  have  said  the  same  thing 
from  immemorial  ages.  The  day  of  miracles  has 
always  been  past,  and  it  has  been  necessary  to  relate 
them,  if  they  were  to  be  related,  as  things  of  the 
past.  This  is  the  rule,  yet  it  is  a  rule  to  which  there 
are  curious  exceptions.  Wonders  of  healing,  seem- 
ingly miraculous,  are,  as  we  all  know,  not  infrequently 
reported  at  the  time  of  their  alleged  taking  place. 
We  do  not  always  credit  the  stories,  but  they  are  told, 
and  usually  with  accompaniments  characteristic  of  our 
mercenary  age  —  a  degradation  from  which  the  old 
tradition  is  saved.  It  is  nowhere  related  that  Jesus 
gave  "lessons,"  for  money,  in  his  art  of  healing,  or 
took  pay  for  any  marvelous  cure.  Nevertheless, 
though  forming  no  part  of  his  gospel,  there  was, 
according  to  the  synoptists,  a  profusion  of  healing. 


T'he  Gospel  Sources  241 

Some  of  the  accounts  doubtless  had  a  certain  founda- 
tion, came  out  of  the  most  original  of  the  gospel 
sources ;  but  a  great  part  of  the  more  marvelous  must 
have  been  later  accretions  :  the  most  marvelous  were 
not  in  the  common  source  from  which  the  synoptics 
drew.  Thus,  the  bringing  of  Simon's  wife's  mother\ 
out  of  a  fever  appears  to  belong  to  the  earliest  tradi- 
tion, as  it  is  related  by  all  three ;  but  each  later  one 
of  the  three  varies  the  account  to  make  it  appear 
more  miraculous.  Mark  has  it  that  Jesus  "  came  and 
took  her  by  the  hand  and  lifted  her  up,"  whereupon 
the  fever  left  her.  Matthew  strengthens  the  report  by 
saying  that  he  only  **  touched  her  hand."  Luke,  to  put 
the  supernaturalness  of  the  act  beyond  question,  or 
because  in  his  source  the  story  had  already  assumed 
another  form,  has  it  that  Jesus  "  stood  over  her  and  re- 
buked the  fever,"  implying  a  belief,  old  as  Babylon,  that 
disease  is  a  demon  that  can  be  scolded  and  frightened 
away.  There  is  one  account  of  the  healing  of  a  leper, 
which,  as  it  appears  in  all  of  the  first  three  gospels, 
must  have  got  into  the  common  source,  probably  at  a 
late  day ;  but  Luke  has  a  story  of  wholesale  cure  of 
leprosy  which  was  not  in  that  source,  —  ten  lepers 
healed  by  word  of  mouth  as  they  "stood  afar  off." 
The  giving  of  sight  to  the  blind,  told  of  Elisha,  was 
supposed  to  be  indicated  by  the  prophets  as  a  function 


242        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  the  Messiah  (Is,  35:5;  42  :  7) ;  so  with  the  belief 
that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah  there  grew  up  a  legend  of 
this  sort.  That  it  does  not  belong  to  the  earliest 
tradition,  but  originated  in  the  mind  of  a  later  nar- 
rator, whose  story  was  afterward  freely  modified,  ap- 
pears from  the  fact  that  the  accounts  in  the  three 
gospels  are  without  agreement  as  to  time,  place, 
number  of  the  blind,  or  mode  of  cure  ;  one  hav- 
ing it  that  the  marvel  was  done  by  spitting  on  the 
eyes,  another,  by  touching  them,  and  the  third,  by 
V  the  word  of  command,  "Receive  thy  sight ! "  From 
sources  which  are  in  general  agreement  the  three 
gospels  report  the  discussion  on  the  charge  made  by 
scribes  or  Pharisees  that  Jesus  cast  out  demons 
through  some  league  with  Satan ;  but  the  particular 
source  used  by  Matthew  was  more  developed  than  the 
others,  since  in  Matthew  the  paragraph  is  introduced 
by  the  statement  that  Jesus  so  successfully  healed  a 
person  "possessed  by  a  demon,"  and  who  was  also 
blind  and  dumb,  that  the  subject  actually  "  spoke  and 
saw."  The  cure  of  a  woman  "  bent  together  by  a 
spirit  of  infirmity  for  eighteen  years,"  and  that  of  the 
man  with  dropsy,  must  be  late  accretions,  as  they  were 
in  a  source  used  only  by  Luke  (or  they  may  have  been 
derived  by  him  from  oral  tradition).  Of  yet  more 
obviously  late  origin,  being  unknown  to  the  common 


The  Gospel  Sources  243 

source,  is  Luke's  story  of  the  raising  to  life  from  his 
coffin,  as  it  was  borne  through  the  street,  of  the  son 
of  a  widow  of  Nain.  It  may  be  doubted  that  this 
astounding  narrative  had  existence  in  any  previous 
writing,  or  had  even  an  oral  currency.* 

As  examples  of  derivation  from  very  late  sources 
may  be  mentioned  the  account  in  Matthew  of  Jesus 
sending  Peter  out  to  catch  a  fish  in  whose  gills  he 
should  find  the  needed  coin  to  pay  their  poll-tax ;  the 
report  in  Luke  that  Zacharias  was  punished  with 
dumbness  for  not  believing  what  the  angel  Gabriel 
told  him ;  also  his  story  (5  :  4-10)  of  the  marvelous 
catch  of  fishes ;  and  John's  imposing  account  of  the 
raising  of  Lazarus,  —  none  of  which  was  in  the  source 
used  by  any  one  of  the  other  evangelists. 

That  the  written  sources  were  chiefly  made  up  of 
sayings,  and  the  oral  of  narratives,  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  synoptics  there  is  a  much 
closer  agreement  on  the  sayings  than  on  the  narra- 
tives. Then  again,  it  is  quite  natural  that  the  sayings 
should  be  the  first  to  be  written,  as,  though  doubtless 
considered  the  more  important,  they  were  not  so 
easily  carried  in  memory.     The  fact  that  they  were 


*  Dr.  Cheyne  appears  to  think  this  marvel  a  contribution  of  Luke's 
own,  patterned  on  stories  of  Elijah  and  Elisha.  No  trace  is  to  be 
found  of  any  such  place  as  Nain. 


244       "I^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

written  long  before  they  appeared  in  our  gospels  does 
not,  however,  guaranty  their  authenticity.  Additions 
were  made,  in  the  course  of  half  a  century  or  so,  even 
to  the  words  of  Jesus,  though  doubtless  there  was 
less  disposition  to  do  this  than  to  fabricate  narratives 
about  him.  The  records  made  during  his  ministry, 
if  there  were  such,  or  from  the  memory  of  loving 
disciples  soon  after  its  close,  would  come  the  nearest 
to  giving  us  his  thoughts  in  his  own  words,  and  so  to 
satisfying  our  principal  quest.  Quite  a  good  many 
passages  give  evidence  of  having  been  so  preserved, 
and  these,  dealing  with  the  highest  things,  form  the 
real  core  of  the  Gospel  message.  They  are  character- 
ized by  a  style  utterly  different  from  that  of  any  one 
of  the  compilers,  and  by  a  clearness  and  profundity 
of  thought  to  which  they  all  are  strangers.  We  have, 
therefore,  two  sets  of  indications  bearing  on  the  gen- 
uineness of  utterances  attributed  to  Jesus,  one  resting 
on  the  sources,  the  other  on  the  substance.  The  con- 
currence of  all  three  synoptics  in  a  statement,  forming 
what  is  called  the  Triple  Tradition,  is  taken  to  indicate 
an  agreement  of  their  sources,  and  so  to  be  a  strong 
mark  of  genuineness.  Where  two  of  the  synoptics 
concur,  with  or  without  John,  we  have  a  Double  Tra- 
dition, which  carries  considerable  weight,  especially 
where  not  directly  opposed  by  the  third  synoptic,  as 


The  Gospel  Sources  245 

it  shows,  so  far,  agreement  of  the  sources.  There  is 
indeed  a  possibility  that  the  exact  agreements,  partic- 
ularly marked  between  Matthew  and  Luke,  may  have 
resulted  from  the  later  writer  borrowing  directly  from 
the  preceding ;  but  this  weakens  the  argument  less 
than  might  be  supposed,  for  the  borrowing  would  in 
any  case  hardly  go  beyond  what  the  borrower  found 
to  be  in  substantial  agreement  with  his  earlier  sources. 
The  other  set  of  indications  lie  in  the  recognizable 
style,  thought,  and  spirit  of  Jesus,  whose  manifest 
superiority  to  his  biographers  is  so  great  that  the 
acute  reader  is  not  likely  to  take  their  words  for  his. 
The  force  of  the  latter  indications  may  even  over- 
bear the  absence  of  the  former.  For  example,  we  >^ 
have  in  Luke,  and  in  Luke  alone,  —  therefore  unsup- 
ported by  the  triple,  or  by  any  double,  tradition,  — 
^  the  parables  of  the  Good  Samaritan  and  the  Prodigal 
Son.  Now,  though  we  know  Luke  to  be  a  tender, 
sympathetic  soul,  and  a  writer  of  some  skill,  we  know 
also  his  limitations,  which  in  some  particulars  are  very 
great,  so  great  that  we  cannot  think  of  him  as  capable 
of  creations  like  those.  He  must  have  got  the  para- 
bles from  oral  tradition,  or,  more  probably,  from  some 
written  source  not  available  to  the  other  evangelists. 
A  multitude  of  the  sayings  of  Jesus,  as  we  may  nat- 
urally suppose,  and  as  we  are  expressly  told  at  the  end 


246        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  were  never  written  out  in  the 
gospels  or  elsewhere.  Certain  great  things,  like  these 
parables,  may  have  been  heard  by  only  a  few,  and 
distinctly  remembered  by  only  one.  If  that  one 
chanced  to  be  a  reticent,  retiring  person,  living  in 
some  out  of  the  way  place,  the  utterance  might 
slumber  with  him,  and  his  transcription  of  it,  if  he 
made  one,  might  not  get  into  the  current  collections 
in  fifty  years.  Though  a  fate  like  this  could  hardly 
befall  any  considerable  number  of  the  sayings,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  there  might  be  such  cases.  A  really 
great  utterance,  therefore,  having  intrinsic  marks  of 
genuineness,  is  not  to  be  hastily  voted  spurious  for 
lacking  the  support  of  the  common  source. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  theory  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  gospels  from  a  succession  of  enlarging 
sources  is  analogous  to  the  development  of  the  books 
of  the  Law,  set  forth  in  previous  chapters,  and  to  the 
growth  of  such  composites  of  prophecy  as  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah.  Each  successive  collection  of  the  sayings 
and  doings  of  Jesus,  of  which  there  were  we  know  not 
how  many,  was  a  kind  of  revised  and  expanded  gospel 
which,  having  as  yet  nothing  of  the  character  of  Holy 
Scripture,  but  written  for  the  comfort  and  edification 
of  the  disciples,  could  be  freely  emended  from  time 
to  time.    The  period  in  which  the  process  was  carried 


'The  Gospel  Sources  247 

through,  ending  in  our  gospels,  was  comparatively 
short,  hardly  more  than  one  hundred  years ;  but  we 
must  remember  that  it  was  a  period  marked  by  an 
extraordinary  religious  movement  and  a  rapid  trans- 
formation of  ideas.  The  preaching  of  Jesus  had  given 
a  mighty  impetus  to  universalistic  conceptions  ;  he 
had  led  his  disciples  to  feel  that  they  were  commis- 
sioned to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  nations ;  the  exclu- 
sive bars  of  Judaism  were  crumbUng  away.  Doctrines 
were  developing  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Christ 
and  of  his  office  in  the  world's  redemption,  legends  of 
marvels  attending  his  birth,  his  life,  and  his  death ;  — 
and  this  mass  of  material  together,  though  of  a  more 
or  less  transient  and  mistaken  character,  served  as  the 
basis  of  the  early  Church  in  an  age  that  knew  not 
how  better  to  build.  But  in  it  all  there  was  conserved 
the  treasure  of  the  divine  Word  spoken  by  the  Master, 
having  in  itself  power  in  the  fullness  of  time  to  renew 
and  rebuild  in  a  far  more  glorious  fashion. 


CHAPTER    XL 
The  Synoptic  Gospels. 

Process  of  formation  supposed  to  have  gone  on  in  the  sources  con- 
tinued in  the  formation  of  the  gospels  —  Originals  of  Matthew 
and  Mark  —  Luke  apparently  the  latest  of  the  three  gospels  — 
Probable  date  of  Matthew  —  Evidences  that  Mark  is  older  — 
Additions  to  Mark  —  Matthew's  Gospel  —  Written  for  Jewish 
Christians  —  Lacks  the  directness  and  consistency  of  Mark  — 
Makes  valuable  additions  from  other  sources  —  Review  of  the 
additions  —  Luke's  Gospel  —  Its  additions  to  both  of  the  others. 

A  PROCESS  similar  to  that  supposed  to  have 
gone  on  in  the  making  of  the  sources  continued 
in  the  formation  of  the  first  three  gospels  of  the 
canon.  They  are  refinements,  extensions  at  some 
points,  abridgments  at  others,  of  what  went  before. 
The  first  two  are  believed  by  many  to  be  each  a  re- 
cension, with  modifications,  of  a  previous  writing  from 
which  it  derived  its  name.  A  tradition  of  the  second 
century,  standing,  it  must  be  confessed,  on  rather 
slender  basis,  has  it  that  the  apostle  Matthew  wrote  in 
Hebrew  "Memoirs"  of  Jesus,  —  a  compilation  of  his 
"oracles,"  together  with  some  account  of  his  life. 
The  existing  Gospel  of  Matthew  has  been  supposed 


'The  Synoptic  Gospels  249 

to  be  a  development  of  this  apostolic  writing.  But 
any  apostolic  writing  of  the  kind,  if  such  there  was, 
must  have  been  very  brief,  inadequate,  and  unsat- 
isfactory, or  it  would  surely  have  taken  authoritative 
rank  and  rendered  needless  and  even  impertinent  the 
action  of  the  "  many  "  of  Luke's  preface,  who,  he  says, 
**  have  taken  in  hand  to  draw  up  a  narrative  concern- 
ing those  matters  which  have  been  fulfilled  among  us." 
The  fact  that  gospels  multiplied  goes  to  confirm  what 
is  here  presupposed,  that  the  earliest  records  were 
slight,  that  from  small  beginnings  the  gospel  writings 
grew  through  the  decades  for  a  century  or  more. 

An  "  original  Mark,"  on  which  the  present  gospel 
of  that  name  was  fashioned,  though  unsupported  by 
tradition,  has  a  better  standing,  as  it  seems  necessary 
to  the  explanation  of  many  remarkable  agreements  and 
disagreements  between  the  three  accounts  before  us. 
The  problem  is  too  complex  to  be  gone  into  here,  if 
indeed  it  has  not  been  put  out  of  consideration  by  the 
hypothesis  of  numerous  sources,  for  most  of  which  we 
have  not  even  a  name.  On  the  supposition  of  many 
and  differing  sources,  the  project  of  getting  at  the 
precise  way  our  gospels  were  produced,  or  of  form- 
ing a  definite  and  perfectly  adequate  theory  of  the  way 
they  were  produced,  —  what  documents  this,  that,  and 
the  other  writer  had  before  him,  —  becomes  practically 


250        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

impossible ;  nevertheless,  it  is  necessary  to  suppose 
that  by  some  distribution  of  the  unknown  sources  the 
result  we  see  was  reached. 

It  would  be  safe  on  general  principles  to  assume 
that  the  three  gospels  we  are  here  considering  were 
not  simultaneously  written,  that  they  appeared  succes- 
sively, each  later  writer  having  the  preceding  among 
his  sources.  Such  an  assumption  is  supported  by  the 
testimony  of  the  earliest  of  the  Christian  Fathers, 
which  represents  as  in  use  about  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  the  two  gospels,  Matthew  and  Mark, 
and  is  silent  concerning  Luke  as  well  as  John,  indicat- 
ing that  these  latter,  if  existing,  had  not  then  come 
into  general  acceptance.  From  many  and  various 
considerations  the  disposition  of  scholars  now  is  to 
place  the  writing  of  Luke  as  late  as  120,  or  even  1 30 ; 
before  which  time  there  is  evidence  that  the  other 
synoptics  were  in  use.  As  to  Matthew,  it  contains  in 
itself  ample  evidence  of  having  been  written  after  the 
year  70,  —  e.  g.y  to  mention  nothing  more,  the  picture 
of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  chapter  24,  and  the 
parable  of  the  wedding-feast  in  chapter  22,  evidently 
drawn  from  the  same  event ;  and,  as  the  lower  limit, 
it  must  for  the  most  part  have  been  in  existence  in 
1 19,  if,  as  there  is  some  reason  to  think,  a  final  ad- 
dition was  at  that  time  made  to  it.     The  addition 


The  Synoptic  Gospels  251 

referred  to  is  the  story  of  the  Magi :  "  A  Syriac  writ- 
ing ascribed  to  Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  .  .  .  makes  the 
statement,  which  can  hardly  have  been  invented,  that 
this  narrative  [the  story  of  the  Magi],  committed  to 
writing  in  the  interior  of  Persia,  was,  in  a.  d.  i  19, 
during  the  episcopate  of  Xystus  of  Rome,  made 
search  for,  discovered,  and  written  in  the  language 
of  those  interested  in  it  (that  is  to  say,  in  Greek)." 
(Schmiedel).  According  to  these  two  data  the  com- 
pletion of  this  gospel  cannot  vary  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  either  way  from  a.  d.  95.  There  certainly 
is  small  ground  on  which  to  base  any  more  definite 
statement. 

The  many  close  agreements  between  all  three  of 
these  records  make  the  conclusion  irresistible  that  one 
of  them  must  have  been  used  in  the  composition  of 
the  other  two.  If,  with  most  of  the  recent  critics,  we 
take  Luke  for  the  youngest,  it  remains  only  to  settle 
the  priority  between  Matthew  and  Mark.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  so  simple  as  it  sounds.  There  is  no 
external  evidence,  no  historical  testimony,  bearing  on 
the  subject ;  we  are  left  wholly  to  indications  in  the 
gospels  themselves.  From  these  indications  the  best 
critics  have  with  practical  unanimity  adjudged  the 
priority  to  Mark,  and  probably  many  an  unlearned 
reader  has  independently  reached  the  same  conclusion, 


252        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

as  some  of  the  grounds  of  it  are  very  obvious.  To 
btgin  with,  Mark  is  much  the  shortest  of  the  gospels. 
Now,  it  is  far  more  natural  that  the  writer  of  Matthew 
should  extend  Mark's  narrative  than  that  Mark,  having 
Matthew's  work  before  him  and  using  large  portions 
of  it,  should  deliberately  omit  other  large  portion^.* 
Considering  the  quality  of  much  that  he  would  thus 
omit,  it  is  simply  inconceivable  that  he  would  do  it. 
Matthew  is  much  given  to  quoting  prophecies  and 
alleging  fulfillment  of  prophecies.a  habit  that  belongs 
especially  to  the  later  writers.  Mark  himself  quotes 
no  prophecies,  the  sole  instance  where  he  appears 
to  do  so  (i  :  2,  3)  being  an  interpolation.  Mark  re- 
lates numerous  miraculous  incidents,  but  he  makes 
scarcely  a  single  addition  to  the  miracle-stories  found 
in  the  other  evangelists ;  the  others  all  have  special 
marvels  of  their  own  to  tell.  Genuine  Mark,  ending 
with  16  :  8,  has  nothing  of  the  miraculous  conception, 
nothing  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus,  nothing  of  his  re- 
appearance after  death.  These  are  features  which 
point  decidedly  to  the  more  primitive  character  of  this 
gospel.  Another  evidence  of  its  having  preceded  the 
other  three  is  its  being  written  in  a  much  less  finished 


*  The  converse  argument  does  not  hold.  Matthew  omits  little  of 
Mark,  and  omits  that  little  usually  for  reason,  —  because  of  its  blunt- 
ness  or  its  crudeness,  or  on  account  of  doctrinal  implications. 


T!he  Synoptic  Gospels  i^^ 

style.  The  Greek  is  pronounced  "rude."  A  com- 
petent critic  calling  attention  to  some  of  the  language 
says,  "  Such  words  might  naturally  find  their  place  in 
the  dialect  of  the  slaves  and  freedmen  who  formed  the 
first  congregations  of  the  church  in  Rome."  Hardly 
would  one  with  no  more  literary  faculty,  with  Matthew 
already  in  hand,  have  undertaken  to  produce  another 
gospel ;  to  have  the  motive  for  such  a  work  he  must 
have  preceded  Matthew. 

One  other  point  is  not  less  conclusive,  and  that  is 
what  has  been  called  the  "  candor  "  of  Mark.  He 
says  things  bluntly  and  plainly,  with  little  thought  of 
what  the  effect  will  be.  Thus,  he  speaks  of  the  limita- 
tion of  Jesus'  power,  tells  how,  when  he  came  into  his 
own  country,  "he  could  not  do  any  miracle  there, 
except  that  he  laid  his  hand  on  a  few  sick  persons  " 
(6:5);  ^^  another  place  (3  :  20,  21)  he  gives  currency 
to  the  story  that  the  relatives  of  Jesus  thought  he  was 
crazy,  after,  in  the  same  chapter  (3:  11),  making 
the  first  declaration  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah  come 
from  the  mouth  of  a  demoniac.  These  are  features 
carefully  brushed  aside  by  the  succeeding  evangelists 
as  derogatory  to  the  Master,  "  stumbling-blocks  "  to 
believers ;  and  surely  they  are  features  which  no 
writer  having  Matthew's  narrative  before  him  would 
have  added. 


254       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

These  and  other  considerations  which  will  occur  to 
the  careful  reader  leave  no  room  to  doubt  that  of  the 
four  gospels  in  our  possession  Mark's  is  decidedly  the 
most  primitive. 

Having  come  to  this  conclusion  we  may  legitimately 
suppose  that  some  additions  were  made  to  Mark  from 
the  other  gospels  after  they  came  to  be  written.  That 
the  resurrection-story  at  the  close  is  such  an  addition 
we  have  positive  evidence  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
found  there  in  the  oldest  Greek  manuscripts.  Very 
likely  there  are  other  insertions,  for  which  we  have 
not  this  kind  of  evidence.  At  least  we  may  fairly 
suppose  that  original  Mark  did  not  contain,  involved 
with  the  parusia  to  follow,  the  apocalyptic  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  (13:  9-27),  which  would 
point  to  a  date  later  than  70.  Taking  these  and  a 
few  of  the  more  incredible  miracle-stories  —  such  as 
the  walking  on  the  sea,  and  the  feeding  of  thousands 
of  people  onlieST  to  nothing,  with  more  food  left  over 
than  there  was  to  begin  with  —  as  accretions  of  the 
last  quarter  of  the  century,  there  is  no  great  difficulty 
in  making  out  a  more  original  Mark  which  may  have 
dated  as  early  as  50.  This  book  began,  as  does  our 
Mark,  with  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  knowing  nothing 
of  him  up  to  that  hour.  As  foundation  for  the  story 
of  the  Temptation,  so  elaborately  developed  by  Mat- 


l^he  Synoptic  Gospels  255 

thew,  Mark  has  the  one  verse  (Mark  i  :  13):  "In 
the  wilderness  forty  days  tempted  by  Satan,  he  was 
with  the  wild  beasts,  and  the  angels  ministered  unto 
him," — an  obvious  myth.  Then  begin  the  preach- 
ing and  the  teaching,  brief  reports  of  conversations, 
parables,  and  discourses,  copied  from  earlier  records, 
—  in  some  cases,  perhaps,  taken  from  the  lips  of  act- 
ual auditors,  —  utterances  which  form  the  real  core  of 
the  gospel.  Interspersed  with  these  essentials  is 
curious  legendary  matter,  which  began  early  to  gather 
about  the  name  of  Jesus,  —  some  fifteen  miraculous 
incidents,  mostly  relating  to  the  cure  of  one  and 
another  physical  ailment.  Jesus  receives  some  indefi- 
nite exaltation,  is  indicated  as  the  Messiah,  but  is 
directly  called  the  Christ  in  good  faith  only  once 
(8  :  29).  He  is  freely  spoken  of  as  limited  in  power 
(6:  t;U  as  limited  in  knowledge  (i y  ^2) :  as  being 
suspected  of  mental  aberration  (3  :  21).  We  are  here 
at  an  early  stage  in  the  development  of  Christology. 
No  such  language  could  be  used  at  the  end.  of  the 
century.  Matthew  retains  the  limitation  of  kno wedge 
(24 :  36),  but  Luke  will  have  none  of  it.  Especially 
notable  is  the  absence  in  our  earliest  gospel  of  the 
whole  cycle  of  resurrection-legends,  the  narrative  end- 
ing with  the  simple  statement  that  the  two  women 
who  visited  the  spot  very  early  Sunday  morning  found 


256        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  stone  rolled  away  from  the  opening  of  the  tomb, 
and  that  they  were  told  by  "  a  young  man  "  sitting 
there  that  Jesus,  whom  they  sought,  had  risen. 
Nobody  sees  the  risen  Christ  or  has  any  intercourse 
with  him. 

Starting  from  this  most  primitive  gospel  of  which 
we  have  positive  knowledge,  contained  in  our  present 
Mark  (or  partially  contained  there,  as  there  may  have 
been  excisions  as  well  as  additions),  we  come,  through 
a  series  of  modifications  which  may  have  gone  on  for 
a  hundred  years,  to  the  gospel  as  it  now  stands.  In 
the  meantime  other  gospels  were  written,  and  first 
(among  those  that  survive)  the  one  which  bears  the 
name  of  Matthew.  The  name  has  given  ready  cur- 
rency to  a  statement  of  Papias  implying  that  the  sub- 
stance of  this  book  was  written  by  Matthew,  in  Hebrew, 
by  which  we  must  understand  Aramaic  if  anything, 
for  already  at  the  Christian  era  Hebrew  was  a  dead 
language  not  in  the  command  of  unlearned  men  like 
the  apostles.  It  is  unlikely  indeed  that  any  one  of  the 
apostles  ever  made  a  formal  writing  in  any  language. 
The  most  that  can  be  admitted  is  that  some  memo- 
randa were  left  by  Matthew,  forming  some  slight 
basis  for  the  gospel  called  after  him.  But  there  were 
certainly  other  helps,  not  the  least  of  which  was  orig- 
inal Mark.     Some  of  these  sources  were  surely  such 


ne  Synoptic  Gospels  257 

as  had  not  been  available  to  Mark,  amply  justifying 
the  production  of  another  and  more  comprehensive 
statement. 

The  writer  reflects  the  Jewish-Christian  attitude  of 
jbhe  closing;  years  of  the  first  century.     Jerusalem  has 
been  destroyed,  and  the  Jewish  State  has  practically 
gone  out  of  existence  ;jth_e  Messianic  prophecies  have 
no  more  chance  of  fulfillment,  therefore  they  must 
already  have  been  fulfilled,  and  Jesus  was  the  fulfill- 
ment.    The  writer  is  thoroughly  possessed  by  this 
idea,  and  some  of  the  incidents  of  his  opening  chap- 
ters are  only  too  apparently  created  "  that  it  might  be 
fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  Lord  through  the 
prophet."     Because  Messiah,  the  Prince,  w^,<;  to  hf*  of 
royal  blood,  he  constructs  a  genealogy  according  to 
which   Jesus    descended    in   direct    line   from    king 
David,* — a  genealogy  on  the  paternal  side,  recogniz-*^ 
ing  Joseph  as  the  father  of  Jesus,  and  rendered  abso-l 
lutely  null  and  void  by  the  later  addition  to  this  very  J 
gospel  (i  :  18-25)  of  the  myth  of  the  miraculous  con- J 
ception. 

By  good  fortune  this  author  had  acquired  a  collec- 


*  This  is  the  more  peculiar,  as  Jesus  in  all  three  of  these  gospels 
is  reported  as  adverse  to  the  notion  that  the  Christ  must  come  of  the 
line  of  David.  See  on  this  point  Matt.  22  :  41-45  ;  Mark  12  :  35-37  ; 
Luke  20 :  41-44. 


258        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

tion  of  remarkable  excerpts  from  the  discourses  of 
Jesus,  the  insertion  of  which  in  the  form  of  a  sermon 
on  a  mountain  puts  the  world  under  everlasting  obliga- 
tions to  him.  The  freedom  of  Jesus  in  these  utter- 
ances from  the  dogmas  which  in  the  two  or  three  inter- 
vening generations  had  grown  up  concerning  him,  is 
a  striking  seal  of  their  genuineness,  warranting  their 
acceptance  along  with  a  few  great  parables  as  an 
authentic  compend  of  his  teaching.  Less  can  be  said 
for  another  considerable  addition  to  what  we  are  told 
in  the  older  gospel,  —  the  so-called  charge  to  the 
twelve  apostles.  This  charge  (chap.  10)  is  expanded 
to  great  length  from  ten  lines  in  Mark.  It  may  con- 
tain reminiscences  of  what  Jesus  said  at  some  time, 
but  that  it  was  uttered  as  reported  may  well  be 
doubted.  The  beginning  of  it,  "  Go  not  away  to  the 
gentiles,"  is  what  in  Jesus'  lifetime  there  could  have 
been  no  occasion  to  say,  and  reflects  the  situation  at  a 
later  period,  as  well  as  an  anti-Pauline  tendency  in 
the  writer.  The  concluding  paragraphs  have  a  truer 
ring. 

The  I  ith  chapter  comes  wholly  from  another  source 
than  Mark.  ^  It  reports  a  visit  to  Jesus  from  disciples 
of  John,  with  the  discourse  which  followed  that  visit. 
It  may  in  the  main  be  accepted,  though  it  shows  the 
effect  of  its  passage  through  the  years,  giving  us  here 


The  Synoptic  Gospels  259 

and  there  views  which  belong  to  the  end  of  the  cent- 
ury. We  can  hardly  think  of  Jesus,  after  repeatedly 
charging  the  disciples  not  to  publish  a  marvel,  saying 
to  his  visitors  in  evidence  of  his  Messiahship  :  "  The 
blind  receive  sight,  .  .  .  lepers  are  cleansed,  .  .  .  the 
dead  are  raised."  The  Jesus  of  Mark  could  not  say : 
"All  things  have  been  delivered  unto  me  by  my 
Father;  ...  no  one  knoweth  the  Father  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whom  it  is  the  will  of  the  Son  to 
reveal  him."  Here  we  are  well  down  into  second- 
century  ideas. 

In  the  next  chapter,  which  is  a  disconnected  assem- 
blage of  incidents  and  sayings  drawn  from  various 
sources,  the  deviations  from  Mark  show  again  the 
conceptions  of  the  later  time.  The  habit  of  Mark 
had  been,  in  telling  of  miraculous  cures,  to  cite  the 
individual  instances.  Later  thought  called  for  more 
sweeping  statements ;  so  the  author  of  Matthew  re- 
lates how,  when  Jesus  withdrew  from  a  certain  place 
to  escape  the  machinations  of  the  Pharisees  and  was 
followed  by  many  sick  persons,  "  he  healed  them  air' ) 
and,  with  characteristic  inconsequence  in  his  citation 
of  scripture,  calls  this  unostentatious  healing  fulfill- 
ment  of  a  prophecy  of  Isaiah  in  which  not  a  word  is 
said  about  healing  ^12  :  14-21).  We  have  also  here 
an  obviously  late  and  unauthentic  tradition  of  "the 


i6o       I' he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

sign  of  Jonas," — his  confinement  in  ventre  balmia 
typifying  "the  Son  of  man's  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."*  This  could  only 
come  out  of  a  time  long  subsequent  to  the  death  of 
Jesus.  Nor  is  it  like  him  to  be  boasting  of  superioi;-ity 
to  Jonah  and  Solomon.  But  the  chapter  closes  with 
one  of  the  most  effective  pictures  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament — " J^  Who  is  my  mother,  and  who  are  my 
brothersj '  And  stretching  forth  his  hand  toward 
his  disciples,  he  said,  *  Behold  my  mother  and  my 
brothers !  For  whoever  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
who  is  in  heaven,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother.'  "  So  fine,  so  tender  a  touch  leaves  no  doubt 
of  its  genuineness,  and  again  we  are  grateful  to  this 
writer. 

Chapter  1 3  is  made  up  of  parables  and  their  expla^ 
nation,  most  of  the  matter  being  found  in  Mark. 
There  are,  however,  a  few  additions,  the  most  striking 
of  which  is  the  parable  of  the  tares,  which  with  its 
explanation  is  under  strong  suspicion  of  late  origin. 
Baur  long  ago  saw  in  it  a  veiled  reference  to  Paul, 
who  was  bringing  into  the  wheat-field  of  the  kingdom 
the  hated  tares  of  heathendom.     The  final  disposition 


*  This  is  in  direct  contradiction  of  Mark  8:12,  where,  in  response 
to  the  demand  for  a  sign,  Jesus  distinctly  says,  "  No  sign  will  be 
given." 


The  Synoptic  Gospels  16 1 

of  the  *'  tares  "  is  at  any  rate  more  in  the  spirit  of 
Jewish  sectaries  than  of  Jesus. 

The  story  that  Mark  tells  of  the  feeding  of  four 
thousand  on  seven  loaves  had  by  the  time  of  the 
writing  of  Matthew  acquired  a  prelude.  The  multi- 
tudes are  said  to  have  brought  with  them  "  those  who 
were  lame,  blind,  dumb,  maimed,  and  many  others." 
These  were  laid  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  "  and  he  healed 
them  "(15:  30).  The  four  thousand  fed  in  this  story, 
as  well  as  the  five  thousand  in  what  appears  to  be  its 
double,  are  swollen  by  the  addition  of  **  besides  women 
and  children." 

The  direction  (18  :  15-17)  how  to  proceed  with  an 
erring  church-member  does  not  at  all  suit  the  days 
when  as  yet  there  was  no  church  organization,  and  is 
a  recognized  indication  of  the  comparative  lateness  of 
this  gospel.     Not  to  dwell  on  minor  points,  this  1 8th 

chapter  concludes  wi^h  an  important  p^raKI^^  fnnnri  \ry 

Matthew  alone.  It  is  called  out  by  Peter's  inquiry  ^ 
how  many  times  he  should  forgive  an  off  ending  brother, 
and  brings  in  a  public  official  who,  after  being  par- 
doned by  his  king  a  very  large  shortage  in  his  accounts, 
casts  a  fellow  official  into  prison  for  inability  to  pay 
him  a  small  debt.  The  lesson  that,  in  view  of  what 
God  forgives  us,  we  ought  not  to  be  slow  in  forgiving 
our  debtors,  is  powerfully  drawn,  and  one  wonders  why 


262        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Luke,  who  took  so  much  from  Matthew,  should  not 
\have  taken  this. 

Modification  and  development  of  Mark  continue  on 
almost  every  page.  The  further  considerable  addi- 
tions  are:  the  woes  pronounced  on  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  (chap.  23),  the  important  chapter  25,  and 
28  :  1 1-20.  The  "  woes."  which  are  far  from  the 
spirit  Jesus  ordinarily  manifested,  can  hardly  be  his 
in  their  present  form ;  they  may  be  taken  as  among 
the  last  accretions  to  this  gospel.  Very  significant  to 
the  critic  seeking  to  affix  a  date,  is  verse  35,  where 
"  Zechariah  son  of  Barachiah  "  is  said  to  have  been 
slain  "  between  the  temple  and  the  altar."  Commen- 
tators have  hunted  high  and  low,  and  in  vain,  for  this 
son  of  Barachiah.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  name 
is  Zechariah  son  of  Berechiah,  prophet  of  six  hundred 
years  before ;  but  he  suffered  no  martyrdom.  Accord- 
ing to  Josephus,  one  Zechariah  son  of  Baruch  was 
"put  to  death  in  the  middle  of  the  temple  "  in  a.d.  68. 
The  natural  inference  is  that  this  is  the  case  referred 
to,  and  if  so,  Matthew  could  not  have  been  written 
till  long  enough  after  68  for  the  name  to  have  become 
confused  with  another  in  the  mind  of  the  writer. 
This  would  give  a  date  for  the  gospel  accordant  with 
what  has  here  been  said. 
The  enlargements  upon  Mark  in  the  25th  chapter  con- 


^he  Synoptic  Gospels  0.6^ 

sist  of  the  parable  of  the  Foolish  and  the  Wise  Virgins, 
the  parable  of  the  Talents,  and,  finally,  the  fairest  of 
all  the  pictures  of  the  parusia.  This  last,  with  its 
"  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  did  it  to  me,"  is  full  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus, 
but  the  whole  picture  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man  in  his  glory  must  be  taken  as  a  development  of 
the  time  subsequent  to  the  writing  of  Mark.     The_ 

last    ten    '^^^^g^S    ^^    Mafth^wr    cVimir  tVia    prrniirfV>    r^j    fVi/* 

resurrection-legend  in  that  interval. 

In  this  hurried  survey  we  have  seen  how  Matthew 
is  an  extension  of  the  gospel  story  on  the  basis  of 
Mark,  the  increments  coming  from  sources,  oral  and 
written,  which  Mark  did  not  possess,  or  did  not  see 
fit  to  use,  the  whole  tinged  with  the  doctrines  of  a 
later  time.  Turning  now  to  Luke,  we  find  the  same 
process  carried  still  further,  resulting  in  a  gospel  based 
on  both  Mark  and  Matthew,  with  additions  drawn 
from  yet  other  sources  —  sources  which  seem  to  have 
been  inaccessible  to  the  other  synoptists.  With  him, 
as  with  Matthew,  there  is  the  coloring  of  his  own 


conceptions  7\j\A  the  ohvinns  setting  of  a  later  time. 

As  among  the  disciples  the  exaltation  of  Jesus  grew 
from  decade  to  decade,  the  silence  of  Mark  about  him 
up  to  the  time  of  his  baptism,  together  with  the 
meagemess  of   Matthew's  account  of  his  origin, — 


a  64        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

followed  only  by  strange  stories  of  the  Magi,  of  the 
flight  into  Egypt,  and  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents, 

\  —  weighed  heavily  on  the  hearts  of  Christians.  To 
meet  in  some  little  measure  a  felt  need,  Luke  at  the 
outset,  in  two  long  chapters,  greatly  expands  the  story 
of  the  miraculous  origin,  bringing  in  the  charming 

^  conceit  of  the  shepherds  and  the  choiring  angels,  the 

^  account  of  Simeon  blessing  the  child,  and  of  Anna 
the  prophetess,  and  finally  provides,  in  an  incident  of 
Jesus'  boyhood,  one  resting-place  for  the  feet  of  baffled 

^  Fancy  in  a  viewless  stretch  of  thirty  years.  But  even 
so  credible  a  story  as  that  of  the  lad  Jesus  sitting  with 
the  teachers  in  the  temple  loses  something  of  veri- 
similitude when  mixed  up  with  tales  of  Gabriel  talking 
to  Zachariah  and  to  Mary,  and  of  multitudinous  angels 
singing  to  the  shepherds. 

Matthew  had  done  a  superfluous  thing  in  carrying 
the  genealogy  of  Jesus  up  to  Abraham,  as  Davidic 
descent  was  the  only  point  to  be  established.  Fur- 
thermore, all  Jews  claim  descent  from  Abraham.  But 
Luke  goes  even  farther  yet,  and  traces  the  line  all  the 
way  to  Adam.  He  uses  a  different  source,  so  we 
are  not  surprised  at  a  complete  disagreement  from 
David  down.* 


*  The  desperate  resorts  of  commentators  to  harmonue  the  two 
aptly  illustrate  what  is  said  on  page  22. 


The  Synoptic  Gospels  26^ 

The  first  important  contribution  of  Luke  to  the 
gospel  Hterature  is  the  account  of  Jesus  dining  by 
invitation  at  the  house  of  Simon,  a  Pharisee  (7  :  36- 
50).  The  incidents  developed,  the  intrusion  of  a 
woman  of  ill-repute,  her  devotion,  the  displeasure  of 
the  host,  with  the  ready  parable  and  its  application, 
make  up  an  admirable  lesson  of  forgiveness  and  its 
fruit  of  love.  We  get  here  a  different  idea  of  the 
Pharisees  and  of  Jesus'  relation  to  them  from  that 
insistently  set  forth  in  Matthew. 

In  another  place  (9  :  52-56),  we  have  an  indication 
of  the  spiritual  quahty  of  James  and  John,  which  is  of 
critical  interest.  Jesus,  with  the  twelve,  on  his  way 
to  Jerusalem,  "  sent  messengers  before  him  ;  and  they 
went  and  entered  a  city  of  the  Samaritans  to  make 
ready  for  him.  And  they  (the  Samaritans)  did  not 
receive  him,  because  his  face  was  as  if  he  were  going 
to  Jerusalem.  And  the  disciples  James  and  John,  on 
seeing  it,  said  :  *  Lord,  wilt  thou  have  us  bid  fire  come 
down  from  heaven  and  consume  them  ? '  "  This  dis- 
position of  the  two  brothers  accords  better  with  the 
blunt  statement  of  Mark  (suppressed  by  the  other 
evangeHsts)  that  Jesus  called  them  "sons  of  thunder," 
than  with  the  theory  that  one  of  them  was  the  author 
of  the  most  tenderly  religious  parts  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament.    But  the  main  point  is  that  only  at  a  later 


0.66        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

day  than  either  Mark  or  Matthew  could  it  be  thought 
that  the  apostles  were  able  at  a  word  to  bring  down 
fire  from  heaven  to  consume  whom  they  would.^  The 
same  is  to  be  said  of  the  rejoicing  of  the  seventy  that 
"even  the  demons  "  were  subject  to  them,  and  of  the 
gift  to  them  of  "  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and 
scorpions"  (lo:  17-20). 

An  uivaluable  part  of  Luke's  addition  to  the  record 
is  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  (10:  25-37). 
There  is,  in  fact,  hardly  anything  in  the  Bible  that 
might  not  better  be  spared  than  this.  Not  only  is  it 
conceived  in  the  pure  spirit  of  brotherly  love,  it  widens 
the  brotherhood  to  extend  beyond  the  Jewish  pale. 
Following  the  parable  is  the  pleasant  picture,  peculiar 
to  Luke,  of  Jesus  at  Bethany  with  the  family  he  loved 
so  well. 

Further  material,  of  less  significance,  drawn  from 
sources  not  in  the  hands  of  the  other  synoptists,  in- 
cludes the  similitude  of  the  importunate  solicitor  (11 : 
5-8) ;  the  parable,  with  its  prelude,  of  the  Rich  Man, 
so  prosperous  that  he  had  not  where  to  store  his  crops 
(12:1 3-2 1 ) ;  remarks  on  the  uncertain  relation  of 
suffering  to  sin,  with  the  parable  of  the  Unproductive 
Fig-tree,  and  a  discussion  with  "  the  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  "  on  the  permissibility  of  doing  good  on  the 
Sabbath  (13:  1-17);  some  repetition  of  the  dispute 


fhe  Synoptic  Gospels  267 

over  the  vexed  Sabbath  question;  advice  to  invited 
guests  about  taking  places  at  table  (14  :  i-i  i).  This 
last  is  an  expansion  of  Matt.  23  ;  12,  and  is  manifestly 
a  product  of  the  time  when  Christian  bishops  were 
getting  into  society  and  scrambling  for  the  places  of 
honor  at  feasts.  The  pendant  to  this  (vv.  12-14)  is 
at  least  in  the  Christ-like  spirit.  Following,  in  illus- 
tration, is  the  parable  of  the  Great  Supper  to  which 
there  were  many  invitations  and  no  acceptances. 

Matthew's  parable  of  the  Lost  Sheep  is  supple- 
mented here  (15  :  8-10)  by  that  of  the  Ten  Pieces  of 
Silver^  which  adds  nothing  to  the  other,  and  only 
results,  in  the  connection,  in  an  anti-climax.  But  this 
may  be  overlooked  in  view  of  what  follows^  for  here, 

and    here  OvAy^  we  have  ^^^   pmhlf^  nf  thp  PrnHigal 

Son.  So  Luke  is  to  be  credited  with  preserving  to  V""*^^ 
us,  along  with  much  else  of  high  value,  the  two  very 
greatest  of  Jesus'  parables.  The  first,  that  of  the 
Good  Samaritan,  may  have  been  intentionally  omitted 
by  the  writers  of  Matthew  and  Mark,  who  were  more 
Jewish,  on  account  of  its  universalistic  implications ; 
but  that  any  gospel  should  be  without  the  Prodigal 
Son,  or  that  any  source  passing  as  "The  Sayings 
of  Jesus"  should  have  been  without  it,  is,  to  say  the 
least,  surprising. 

Directly  following  is  the  parable  of   the  Unjust 


261        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Steward,  with   its  application,  —  a   strange  parable 
which  seems  to  have  more  of  Luke  than  of  Jesus. 


Luke,  who  put  a  lower  estimate  on  riches  than  did 
even  Jesus  himself,  and  who  could  praise  generosity 
at  the  expense  of  justice,  made  the  Gospel  specially 
good  tidings  to  the  poor.*  His  animus  toward  rich 
and  poor  comes  out  strongly  in  the  parable  of  the 
Rich  Man  and  Lazarus  (i6  :  19-31),  the  tone  of 
which,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  it  depends  on  a 
single  tradition,  is  against  its  being,  in  its  present 
shape,  from  the  lips  of  Jesus.  That  the  author 
should  put  it  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  is  no  more 
remarkable  than  that  he  should  make  him  say,  just 
before  (verse  16) :  "The  Law  and  the  Prophets  were 
till  John  ;  from  that  time  the  glad  tidings  of  the  king- 
dom have  been  published,  and  every  one  is  forcing  his 
way  into  it!'  Surely  this  does  not  represent  the  sit- 
uation in  Jesus'  lifetime ;  nor  was  any  such  attitude 
taken  regarding  the  Law  until  long  afterward.  Con- 
siderable portions  of  the  17th  and  i8th  chapters, 
mostly  of  an  inferior  order,  but  including  some  mem- 
orable things,  such  as  the  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and 
the  PubHcan  (18  :  9-13)  and  the  assurance  to  Peter 
of  compensation  for  all  sacrifices,  are  of  Luke's  addi- 


*See  Cone,  "Rich  and  Poor  in  the  New  Testament,"  pp.  ii8- 
142. 


^he  Synoptic  Gospels  269 

tion  to  the  gospel;  also  the  story  of  Zacchaeus  (19: 
1-9),  and,  at  the  close,  the  post-resurrection  story  of 
two  of  the  apostles  having  a  long  walk  and  talk  with 
the  risen  Jesus  on  the  way  to  Emmaus. 

Although  Luke  does  not  contain  everything  that  ^ 
Matthew  has,  nor  everything  that  Mark  has,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  new  matter  in  this  gospel  —  matter, 
that  is,  not  met  with  in  either  of  the  others  —  con- 
siderably exceeds  in  bulk,  if  not  in  value,  the  addi- 
tions Matthew  before  had  made  upon  Mark.  Luke's 
researches,  we  have  reason  to  think,  very  nearly 
exhausted  the  genuine  traditions,  besides  drawing 
heavily  —  in  particular,  for  the  beginning  and  end  of  / 
the  narrative  —  upon  myth  and  legend. 

It  is  hard  to  see  how  any  unbiased  student  can 
compare  these  writings,  observing  how  one  depends 
upon  another,  without  reaching  the  conclusion  here 
set  forth  that  the  oldest  is  Mark,  or  rather  a  writing 
of  which  our  Mark  is  a  not  very  considerably  modified 
recension  ;  that  this  original  Mark  was  one .  of  the 
sources  of  Matthew,  and  then  (either  in  its  primitive 
or  in  its  present  modified  form)  together  with  Matthew 
served  as  a  source  for  Luke  ;  that  both  of  these  latter 
drew  from  other  sources,  Luke  having  one  or  more 
not  in  the  possession  of  Matthew.  This  view,  while 
not  by  any  means  elucidating  the  whole  problem,  will, 


ayo       T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

it  is  believed,  go  further  towards  it  than  any  othef 
that  has  been  suggested.  The  order  of  the  books  in 
time,  here  contended  for,  further  commends  itself  in 
that  it  accords  with  an  obvious  literary  development 
/  in  the  writers.  Mark^  as  the  earliest,  is,  as  we  should 
expect,  the  rude,  plain-spoken  gospel,  diffuse^  unfin- 
ished, the  work  of  a  man  not  trained  in  cultured^ 
speech.  Matthew,  while  given  to  an  inept  use  of  old 
prophecies,  and  not  above  criticism  in  some  other 
respects,  makes  from  a  literary  point  of  view  a  con- 
siderable advance,  handling  his  matter  with  no  little 
skill.  Finally,  in  Luke  we  have  the  accomplished 
scribe,  representing  the  culture  that  w;\«;  mmin^  intn 
the  Church  in  the  second  century.  To  him  we  owe 
the  two  books  which,  as  works  of  art,  rank  first  in  the 
New  Testament. 


CHAPTER   XII. 
Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

Facts  scanty,  at  time  of  the  writing  of  Acts,  concerning  the  doings 
of  the  apostles  for  the  first  decade  after  the  crucifixion  — "  Un- 
learned and  ignorant  men  " —  Headship  of  Peter  —  Legendary 
character  of  much  of  the  first  half  of  the  book  —  The  affair  of 
Cornelius  —  Peter  opens  the  way  for  gentiles  to  come  into  the 
Church  —  Conflict  of  this  account  with  Galatians — Jewish.  Chris- 
tians oppose  Peter's  liberal  action  —  Paul  to  the  front  —  His  mis- 
sionary tours  —  Rough  experiences  —  Writer  has  more  authentic 
data  of  Paul  than  of  Peter  —  Council  of  Jerusalem  —  Question 
of  admitting  gentiles  to  fellowship  formally  settled  as  far  as  the 
leaders  are  concerned  —  The  "we"  sections  of  the  narrative 
greatly  strengthen  its  credibility  —  Paul's  reality  too  intense  to 
be  lost  in  the  legends  clustering  about  him  —  His  fierce  conten- 
tion with  the  Jerusalem  apostles  a  myth  woven  in  the  after  time. 

C)NSIDERATION  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
follows  naturally  after  that  of  the  synoptics,  as 
the^book  purports  to  come  from  the  hand  of  the 

aiitV^^r  of   thp  ThirH  Onsppl  anri  rnnHnnpg    the-   rornrA 
Jl"^^  ^^'^  pnint  wtiprp   that  worV  r^DClUClgt?        It  is  the 

sole  narrative  left  us  of  the  doings  of  the  Church  for 
the  first  ^^irty-^^^^  yparg  nf  itc  f^YiQtPnrp ;  the  Only 
other  writings  bearing  even  incidentally  and  scantily 
upon  the  same  period  and  the  same  events  being  the 


272        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

epistles  attributed  to  Paul.  It  is  to  be  presumed  there- 
fore that  when  the  author  set  himself  to  this  work, 
which  was  some  time  subsequent  to  the  writing  of  his 
gospel,  that  is  to  say,  well  down  into  the  second  cent- 
ury, authentic  sources  of  information  concerning  the 
earlier  period  were  limited  in  the  extreme.  That  such 
should  have  been  the  case  more  especially  as  to  the 
years  immediately  following  the  death  of  Jesus  is  what 
under  the  circumstances  must  be  deemed  inevitable. 
All  thought  was  then  turned  on  the  great,  the  unique 
personality  that  had  come  and  gone.  What  writings 
were  made  were  reminiscences  of  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  the  Master ;  nothing  after  him  seemed  worth 
recording.  The  men  who,  as  apostles,  took  up  the 
leadership  were  pigmies  in  comparison,  and,  we  may  be 
sure,  did  little  enough  which  to  their  contemporaries 
appeared  to  be  history-making  material.  Only  after 
they  were  dead  did  they  grow  into  any  great  impor- 
tance. Even  tradition,  aided  by  legend  in  a  time  when 
legends  grew  apace,  could  make  nothing  notable  of 
more  than  four ;  and  the  fame  of  these  four  can 
hardly  be  made  to  rest  on  anything  they  ever  said. 
There  is  not  a  line  in  existence  that  can  be  confidently 
traced  to  the  hand  of  any  one  of  them.  That  they 
were  all  good  men,  who  did  faithful  service  in  dissem- 
inating a  knowledge  of  Jesus,  there  is  abundant  reason 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  273 

to  believe ;  that  three  of  them  had  more  distinguish- 
ing qualities  seems  to  be  indicated.  At  any  rate, 
when  Acts  came  to  be  written,  three,  and  apparently 
only  three,  were  more  than  names  ;  and  of  the  leading 
two  of  these,  Peter  and  John,  it  is  there  said,  "  they 
were  unlearned  and  ignorant  men  "  (4  :  13). 

The  writer,  in  default,  it  would  seem,  of  documents 
concerning  the  Church  of  the  first  ten  or  fifteen  years 
after  the  death  of  Jesus,  depended  largely  on  oral  tra- 
dition, which  in  the  later  time  had  rapidly  developed. 
The  tendency  had  been  to  raise  Peter  into  a  kind  of 
successor  to  Jesus  as  head  of  the  Church,  and,  as  it 
was  impossible  to  clothe  him  with  Jesus'  mental  and 
spiritual  endowments,  tradition  did  what  it  could  in 
making  him  a  worker  of  marvels  who  went  about 
curing  all  manner  of  sicknesses  and  even  raising  the 
dead.  Every  power  in  this  direction  which  had  been 
attributed  to  the  Master  was  passed  over  to  this  disciple. 
This  is  in  strong  contrast  with  what  we  are  told  in  the 
gospels  of  his  gifts ;  however,  that  we  are  not  to  look 
for  consistency  in  the  statements  of  a  narrator  who 
depends  upon  hearsay  for  his  facts  goes  without  say- 
ing. From  this  point  of  view  it  is  no  matter  for 
surprise  that  the  same  writer  who  in  his  gospel  repre- 
sents the  ascension  as  supervening  very  shortly  upon 
the  resurrection,  —  within  twenty-four  hours,  —  inter- 


274        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

poses  in  this  next  "treatise,"  which  overlaps  the  first 
to  pick  up  the  thread,  an  interval  of  forty  days  between 
the  two  events.  So  much  the  tradition,  or  perhaps 
we  should  say  his  knowledge  of  the  tradition,  had 
expanded  between  the  completion  of  the  first  writing 
and  the  taking  up  of  the  second. 
y/  Opening  with  the  statement  that  for  forty  days  after 
the  resurrection  Jesus  was  in  communication  with  the 
disciples,  giving  them  full  directions  about  their  work, 
the  writer  paints  the  final  scene  when,  after  Jesus 
"  had  said  these  things,  as  they  were  looking,  he  was 
taken  up ;  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of  their 
sight."  Following,  we  have  a  list  of  the  eleven  re- 
maining apostles,  gathered  for  conference  in  their 
"  upper  room  "  in  Jerusalem,  —  although  Matthew  has 
it  that  they  had  all  fled  to  Galilee,  —  of  eight  (if  not 
of  nine)  of  whom  no  further  mention  is  made  in  the 
whole  course  of  a  book  bearing  the  title,  "  Acts  of  the 
Apostles."*  This  would  seem  to  imply  that,  in  the 
judgment  of  a  second-century  writer,  there  were  in  the 
original  band  only  two  or  three  men  of  note.  Peter  is 
acknowledged  leader,  and  at  an  early  meeting  of  the 


*  The  Philip  repeatedly  mentioned  is  not  the  apostle  of  that  name, 
but  Philip  the  evangelist.  Even  the  list  (i  :  13),  which  agrees  with 
I.uke  6 :  16  in  including  Judas  the  son  of  James,  departs  from  that 
of  Mark  and  Matthew,  who  have  Thaddaeus  instead. 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  275 

brethren  he  review*  the  crime  of  Judas  and  arranges 
for  the  choice  of  an  apostle  in  his  place.  Into  this 
speech  the  writer  injects  parenthetically  an  account  of 
the  death  of  Judas  which  cannot  be  harmonized  with 
that  in  Matt.  27  :  5  (Acts  1:18).  Again,  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  after  the  marvelous  "  speaking  with  other 
tongues,"  Peter  makes  the  only  speech  thought  worth 
recording,  —  a  speech  charged  with  the  later  Pauline 


doctrine  of  the  "  determinate  counsel  and  forekno^^- 
edge  of  God  "  by  which  even  a  crime  like  the  crucifix- 
ion is  brought  about !  As  a  result  of  this  effort,  we 
are  told,  three  thousand  souls  were  added  to  the 
Church,  which  a  few  days  before  seems  to  have  con- 
sisted of  "about  one  hundred  and  twenty"  persons. 
In  the  next  chapter  Peter,  after  healing  a  man  crippled 
from  his  birth  and  unable  to  move,  delivers  another 
discourse,  which  swells  the  number  of  men  alone  con- 
verted to  five  thousand.  Evidently  we  are  in  the  full 
tide  of  legend  here.  The  legendary  strain  continues 
with  more  or  less  prominence  straight  on  through  the 
book,  coming  out  strong  in  the  account  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphir^  omittf^n  Hp^h  fnr  Ayjth^olding  from  the 
apostles  a  part  of  the  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale 
of  their  possessions ;  in  the  report  of  further  multi- 
tudes of  converts  "  both  of  men  and  women,  so  that 
in  the  streets  they  brought  out  the  sick  and  laid  them 


276        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

on  beds  and  couches,  in  order  that  at  least  the  shadow 
of  Peter  as  he  passed  might  overshadow  some  of 
them " ;  in  the  assertion  that  *'  the  multitude  also 
belonging  to  the  cities  around  came  together  to 
Jerusalem  bringing  the  sick  and  those  plagued  by 
unclean  spirits,  and  they  were  all  healed  "  ;  and  in  the 
typically  mythical  representation  that  when,  on  account 
of  all  this,  Peter  and  John  were  seized  by  the  authori- 
ties and  put  in  prison,  "  an  angel  of  the  Lord  in  the 
night  opened  the  prison -doors  and  brought  them 
forth  "  (5  :  1-20).  The  haze  of  unreality  is  so  thick 
over  all  the  first  part  of  the  book  that  little  can  be 
made  out  with  distinctness.  We  are  more  than  sus- 
picious that  the  speeches  put  into  the  mouths  of  the 
principal  characters,  Peter  and  Stephen,  are  Luke's 
rather  than  theirs ;  that  his  data  for  what  he  is  telling 
us  must  be  exceedingly  slight ;  that  what  he  weaves  is 
largely  a  web  of  fancy.  Only  after  we  get  over  the 
first  ten  chapters,  dealing  with  the  first  decade  of  the 
Church,  —  the  period  concerning  which  authentic  in- 
formation would  naturally  be  the  scantiest  and  the 
growth  of  legend  the  rankest,  —  do  we  feel  the  ground 
becoming  more  solid  under  our  feet.  We  are  then  at 
the  point  when,  according  to  this  writer,  the  question 
first  came  up  whether  persons  other  than  Jews  could 
be  received  into  the  Church  without,  as  an  antecedent 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  277 

qualification,  becoming  Jews  by  submission  to  the 
Mosaic  Law.  A  Roman  centurion,  Cornelius  by  name, 
having,  through  experiences  which  in  Luke's  source 
must  have  undergone  a  mythical  transformation,  be- 
come interested  in  the  new  teaching,  wished  to  be 
received  into  the  fellowship  as  a  disciple  of  Jesus. 
Peter's  reflections  over  the  problem  had  also,  in  the 
source,  been  mythically  transformed  into  the  seeing  of 
a  vision  and  the  hearing  of  a  voice,  which  settled  the 
matter  to  his  satisfaction,  so  that  he  went,  by  more  or 
less  miraculous  leading,  from  Joppa  to  Caesarea,  where 
Cornelius  was  in  garrison.  The  officer  had  gathered 
together  his  kinsmen  and  near  friends,  all  presumably 
Romans,  as  he  was  expecting  Peter  and  the  brethren 
who  came  with  him.  In  the  conference  that  ensued 
Peter  said  to  the  little  assembly :  "  Ye  know  that  it  is 
an  unlawful  thing  for  a  Jew  to  keep  company  with  one 
of  another  nation,  or  to  come  near  him ;  but  God  has 
shown  me  that  I  should  not  call  any  man  common 
or  unclean."  Cornelius  then  related  his  experience, 
whereupon  Peter  exclaimed :  "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive 
that  God  is  not  a  respecter  of  persons,  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  him  and  worketh  righteousness 
is  acceptable  to  him."  That,  with  the  rest  of  the 
speech,  is  rather  high  thinking  and  rather  fine  speak- 
ing for  an  "  unlearned  and  ignorant  man,"  and  we  may 


278        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

well  believe  that  the  utterance  has  not  lost  in  force  or 
elegance  in  passing  through  this  writer's  hands.  But 
the  unlearned  and  the  ignorant  are  sometimes  superior 
to  prejudice,  and  such  a  one  might  be  as  likely  as 
another  to  take  this  great  initiative.  At  this  point, 
and  in  the  rest  of  the  narrative  where  it  bears  upon 
the  attitude  of  Peter  on  this  question  and  on  the  rela- 
tions between  him  and  Paul,  the  author  of  Acts  is  so 
categorically  contradicted  in  certain  epistles  attributed 
to  Paul  that  we  must  reject  either  the  historicity  of 
Acts  in  this  matter  or  the  genuineness  of  these  epis- 
tles. Now,  it  happens  that  the  epistles  in  which  the 
war  of  Paul  upon  the  other  apostles  and  their  war 
upon  him  come  out  are  the  very  ones  whose  genuine- 
ness has  been  most  confidently  asserted,  being  of  the 
famous  four  left  of  the  fourteen  by  the  Tubingen 
critics  as  of  unassailable  authenticity.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  book  of  Acts  is  handicapped  in  the  case  by 
the  fact  that  its  narrative  is,  at  some  other  points,  so 
obviously  unhistorical.  Nevertheless,  the  present  trend 
of  opinion  is  in  favor  of  Luke's  representations  and 
against  that  of  the  epistles.  The  problem  will  more 
naturally  come  up  for  consideration  in  dealing  with 
the  Pauline  Literature. 

It  is  very  apparent  that  from  the  beginning  of  the 
nth  chapter  the  writer  of  Acts  has  better  sources  of 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  279 

information.  He  tells  us  that  news  of  the  incident 
at  Caesarea,  how  a  Roman  centurion  with  his  kinsmen 
and  friends  had  been  baptized,  reached  Jerusalem,  and 
that  Peter  on  his  return  there  had  to  defend  his  action, 
which  he  did  on  the  strength  of  the  revelation  made 
to  him,  with  the  manifestation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
approval  of  his  course.  For  the  moment,  the  matter 
rested.  It  is  unnecessary  to  suppose  that  a  single 
incident  of  this  kind  must  inaugurate  a  sweeping 
change  of  policy  in  the  Church  ;  that  Peter  would  be 
constrained  to  go  at  once  into  the  world  beyond  Judea 
with  his  gospel.  It  is  more  natural  that  he  should 
*'  hasten  slowly  "  in  this  matter,  and  do  as  he  is  repre- 
sented to  have  done.  The  prejudice  of  Jewish  Chris- 
tians against  gentiles  was  not  to  be  once  for  all  brushed 
aside  by  an  apostle's  vision  ;  but  a  certain  liberty  was 
given,  to  those  so  disposed,  to  carry  the  Gospel  beyond 
Jewish  circles.  The  first  persecution  of  the  Church, 
about  the  year  33,  in  which  Stephen  was  the  chief 
victim,  dispersed  some  of  the  propagandists  beyond 
the  bounds  of  Judea,  and  a  few  of  these  ventured 
preaching  to  the  Greeks,  and  with  good  success.  This 
too  was  reported  to  the  Jerusalem  church,  which,  not 
yet  wholly  persuaded  by  Peter's  revelation,  sent  a 
messenger  to  Antioch  to  look  into  the  proceeding. 
This  messenger  was  no  other  than  Barnabas,  an  im- 


28o       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

portant  figure  in  the  primitive  Church,  the  one  who 
befriended  Paul  on  his  conversion  and  brought  him 
into  fellowship  with  the  apostles.  The  work  at  Antioch 
met  with  his  entire  approval,  and,  pushing  on  to  Tarsus, 
he  found  Paul  and  brought  him  to  Antioch,  where  they 
labored  together  for  a  whole  year.  At  this  time  dnd 
in  this  place  the  disciples,  it  is  said,  were  first  called 
Christians. 

The  two  heroes  of  Acts  are  Peter  and  Paul,  and  as 
Paul,  at  the  point  where  we  are  now  arrived,  is  about 
to  loom  up  into  overshadowing  importance,  the  writer, 
after  noting  the  execution  of  James  the  brother  of 
John,  first  apostolic  martyr,  inserts  here  the  last  of  his 
stock  of  legends  about  Peter  (12  :  3-23),  who,  in  drop- 
ping out  of  the  leading  role,  is  thus  covered  with  a 
kind  of  valedictory  glory.  Herod  Agrippa  I.,  having 
disposed  of  James,  had  Peter  cast  into  prison,  where, 
bound  with  two  chains,  he  slept  between  two  soldiers, 
with  keepers  guarding  the  door.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  an  angel  of  the  Lord  aroused  him  and  led  him 
forth  past  the  guards.  When  they  came  to  the  iron 
gate  of  egress  from  the  prison,  it  opened  of  itself,  and 
Peter  was  free.  It  is  sad  to  read  that  the  innocent 
guards  paid  with  their  lives  for  what  they  were  with- 
held from  perceiving  and  could  not  help.  But  it  was 
a  great  escape  for  the  apostle,  who  could  not  ask  for 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  281 

more  honorable  retirement  from  his  place  of  distinc- 
tion in  what  Renan  aptly  called  "  the  Odyssey  of  the 
New  Testament." 

The  account  of  the  commissioning  of  Barnabas  and 
Paul  for  a  special  work,  and  of  what  immediately 
followed  (13:  I- 1 2),  is  drawn  from  a  source  which 
put  Barnabas  first  and  took  him  for  the  principal 
person.  The  two  set  out  on  a  missionary  journey, 
preaching  in  the  synagogues  as  they  went  from  place 
to  place.  Paul  proved  the  more  forceful  speaker  and 
the  more  determined  character,  on  account  of  which 
he  is  shortly  recognized  in  the  narrative  as  leader. 
As  might  be  supposed,  this  preaching  of  Christ  in  the 
synagogues,  although,  according  to  this  narrative,  long 
tolerated,  met  here  and  there  with  loud  protest.  On 
the  island  of  Cyprus,  whither  they  sailed  in  the  first 
place,  traveling  through  from  east  to  west,  they  appear 
to  have  met  with  no  other  opposition  than  that  of  a 
Jewish  sorcerer,  named  Barjesus,  with  whom  they  had 
a  contest  for  the  soul  of  Sergius  Paulus,  the  proconsul 
of  the  island,  in  which  contest  Paul  begins  to  show 
himself  a  worker  of  wonders  comparable  to  Peter. 
He  inflicts  a  blindness  on  the  sorcerer  for  his  pre- 
sumptuous trickery,  and  so  wins  the  proconsul  over 
to  the  new  faith.  This  story,  from  whatever  source 
derived,  appears  to  have  been  confused  and  corrupted 


2  82        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

before  it  came  into  the  hands  of  Luke,  the  actual 
blindness  of  Barjesus  being  probably  a  mental  one,  of 
which  Paul,  instead  of  inflicting  it  on  him,  convicted 
him.  This  were  better  ground  for  the  conversion  of 
the  proconsul.  But  not  unwelcome  to  the  writer  was 
any  story  which  gave  to  Paul  miraculous  gifts  and  so 
helped  to  establish  a  parallelism  between  him  and  the 
Peter  already  set  forth. 

From  Paphos  in  Cyprus,  Paul  and  his  company, 
which  at  this  time  included  Mark  (also  called  John), 
crossed  the  gulf  to  the  mainland  north,  where  in  the 
south  part  of  Asia  Minor  were  the  populous  cities  he 
purposed  to  visit.  Wherever  he  went  he  first  found 
and  used  the  synagogue,  and  if  he  was  driven  out,  he 
made  that  a  ground  for  turning  to  the  gentiles.  This 
happened  at  Antioch  of  Pisidia.  From  Iconium  they 
were  compelled  to  flee,  through  a  plot  of  both  Jews 
and  gentiles  to  destroy  them ;  but  at  Lystra  the  action 
of  Paul,  who  paused  in  the  midst  of  his  sermon  to 
"  heal "  a  man  impotent  in  both  feet  and  who  never 
had  walked,  raised  such  a  wave  of  enthusiasm  that  the 
missionaries  were  embarrassed  by  the  reverence  shown 
them  (13  :  13-  14 :  18).  But  this  enthusiasm,  which 
—  so  runs  the  strange  story  —  went  to  the  length  of 
proposing  to  sacrifice  to  them  as  to  gods,  was  so  fickle 
that  when  some  Jews  came  over  from  places  where  the 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  283 

missionaries  had  previously  been,  and  got  the  ears  of 
the  people,  the  whole  town  turned  against  them, 
"  stoned  Paul  and  dragged  him  out  of  the  city,  sup- 
posing him  dead."  Nevertheless,  in  the  presence  of 
the  disciples,  he  revived,  and  the  next  day  they  left 
that  place,  on  which  a  great  miracle  seemed  to  have 
been  wasted.  Nothing  daunted,  however,  the  indom- 
itable Paul,  after  visiting  Derbe,  returned  to  Lystra. 
The  evil  memory  of  the  place  was  ever  softened  to 
him  by  the  fact  that  out  of  it  came  the  faithful 
Timothy.  After  a  few  further  stops  the  party  re- 
turned to  Antioch  whence  they  had  set  out  about  a 
year  before. 

At  this  point,  the  very  middle  of  the  book,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  writer's  sources  again  and  decidedly 
change  their  character,  becoming  greatly  more  authen- 
tic. Beginning  with  the  15th  chapter  one  gets  an 
unmistakable  sense  of  reading  history.  Here  we  have 
it  that,  as  might  be  expected,  some  of  the  stricter  sort 
of  the  brethren  came  down  to  Antioch  from  Jerusalem, 
declaring  that  non-Jewish  converts  must  comply  with 
the  Jewish  ritual  Law.  This  was  now  a  burning  ques- 
tion, as  Paul  had  laid  no  such  requirement  on  his  con- 
verts. It  is  idle  to  say  that  Peter's  course  with 
Cornelius  (if  an  actual  occurrence),  and  his  grounds 
for  it,  ought  to  have  settled  the  question.     Questions 


284        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

involving  immemorial  racial  customs  are  not  settled 
adversely  to  those  customs  in  a  day,  not  even  by  an 
apostle's  vision,  not  if  the  apostle  were  clothed  with 
ten  times  Peter's  authority.  Paul  and  Barnabas  "had 
no  small  dissension  and  questionings,"  we  are  told, 
with  the  brethren  from  Jerusalem,  and  it  was  decided 
to  carry  the  matter  before  a  Council  to  be  held  in  that 
city. 

At  that  Council,  Paul  and  his  associates  set  forth 
the  case  as  it  appeared  to  them,  and  when  there  had 
been  much  questioning,  Peter  rose  up  and  said  : 
"  Brethren,  ye  know  that  a  good  while  ago  God  made 
choice  among  you  that  by  my  mouth  the  gentiles 
should  hear  the  word  of  the  Gospel  and  believe.  And 
God,  who  knoweth  the  heart,  bore  them  witness,  giv- 
ing them  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  he  gave  it  to  us ;  and 
made  no  distinction  between  us  and  them,  cleansing 
their  hearts  by  faith.  Now  therefore  why  make  ye 
trial  of  God,  that  ye  should  put  a  yoke  upon  the  neck 
of  the  disciples  which  neither  our  fathers  nor  we  were 
able  to  bear  ? " 

To  this  James  the  brother  of  Jesus  gave  his  assent, 
adding  :  "  My  judgment  is  that  we  should  not  trouble 
those  who  from  among  the  gentiles  are  turning  to 
God ;  but  that  we  should  write  to  them  by  letter  to 
abstain  from  pollutions  of  idols,  and  from  fornication, 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  285 

and  from  that  which  hath  been  strangled,  and  from 
blood"  (15:6-20). 

This  course  was  adopted,  says  the  writer  of  Acts, 
and  was  satisfactory  to  Paul  and  his  party.  There 
was  peace  in  the  Church  over  the  matter,  at  least  as 
far  as  the  leaders  were  concerned,  though  there  con- 
tinued to  be  need  of  some  tact  in  meeting  the  prej- 
udices of  the  Jewish-Christian  laity.  Thus  when, 
nine  years  later,  Paul  visited  Jerusalem,  while  the 
apostles  and  elders  were  indifferent  as  to  his  non- 
observance  of  the  ritual,  they  approached  him  in  these 
terms :  "  Thou  seest,  brother,  how  many  thousands 
there  are  among  the  Jews  of  them  that  have  believed  ; 
and  they  are  all  zealous  for  the  Law ;  and  they  have 
been  informed  concerning  thee."  Therefore  the  elders 
advised  him  that  in  Jerusalem  he  observe  the  customs 
of  the  place,  which  he  consented  to  do. 

Acts,  from  the  15th  chapter  on  to  the  end,  is 
devoted  to  the  further  journeyings  and  labors  of  Paul, 
for  whom  the  writer  shows  a  regard  and  a  reverence 
quite  as  great  as  were  before  shown  for  Peter.  In 
planning  for  the  second  journey,  Barnabas  wished  to 
take  along  John  Mark  who  had  started  with  them  on 
the  previous  tour  ;  but  Paul  objected  strenuously  to  a 
man  that  had  set  his  hand  to  the  plough  and  then 
turned   back.      The   contention   was   so   sharp   that 


286        "The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Barnabas  himself  withdrew.  Paul  took  with  him 
Silas,  and  at  Lystra  picked  up  Timothy.  It  needs  to 
bear  these  two  in  mind,  as  one  of  them  appears  to  be 
authority  for  much  in  the  narrative  that  follows. 

Scattered  through  these  chapters,  commencing  with 
i6:  10,  are  four  passages  of  varied  and  not  always 
precisely  determinable  length  in  which  the  narrator 
speaks  in  the  first  person,  implying  that  he  was  one  of 
the  party.  The  old  view  was  that  by  "we"  is  meant 
the  author  of  Acts  himself,  and  that  he  was  among 
those  who  accompanied  Paul.*  But  that  is  untenable, 
as,  if  he  spoke  of  his  own  knowledge,  he  would  use 
the  first  person  constantly.  Besides,  Luke  is  not 
once  mentioned  in  Acts,  and  for  the  sufficient  reason 
that  he  was  probably  not  yet  born  in  the  time  of  which 
he  furnishes  this  account.f  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  "  we  "  sections  were  taken  direct  from  one  of 
the  fresh  sources  which  so  strengthen  the  author's 


*  This  fancy  rests  on  the  mention  of  a  certain  Luke  in  II.  Tim. 
4:11,  and  more  specifically  in  Col.  4 :  14  as  "  the  beloved  physician." 
Assuming  these  epistles  to  be  from  the  hand  of  Paul,  and  assuming 
the  Luke  mentioned  to  be  the  author  of  Acts,  we  might  suppose  him 
to  speak  in  Acts  of  things  which  largely  transpired  under  his  own 
observation.  But  the  epistles  are  assuredly  work  of  the  second  cent- 
ury, and  the  Luke  mentioned  in  them,  if  the  author  of  gospel  and  of 
Acts,  could  nol  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Paul. 

t  Let  it  be  understood  that  by  "  Luke  "  is  here  and  throughout 
meant  the  writer  of  Acts  and  the  Third  Gospel ;  his  real  name  we  do 
not  know. 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  287 

narrative  from  the  beginning  of  the  15  th  chapter. 
And  these  sections,  in  the  source  from  which  they 
were  taken,  must  have  been  written  by  one  of  Paul's 
party.  That  the  writing  was  not  by  Paul  himself  is 
implied  by  the  expression  "  Paul  and  us,"  which  occurs 
(16  :  17)* ;  though  it  may  have  been  done  under  his 
supervision.  The  circumstances  point  strongly  to 
Silas  or  Timothy  as  the  writer  of  this  source.  As 
neither  of  these  accompanied  Paul  on  his  way  to 
Rome,  the  long  passage  concerning  that  voyage,  writ- 
ten in  the  first  person  (27:  1-28:  15),  is  probably 
from  a  journal  or  memorandum  made  by  Aristarchus, 
who  was  of  the  company,  or  is  possibly  from  the 
hand  of  Paul  himself.  These  sections,  therefore,  have 
a  special  certitude,  and  are  to  be  implicitly  accepted, 
in  the  judgment  even  of  those  who  make  Acts  yield 
to  the  epistles  at  all  points  of  conflict.  In  the  first 
place  they  are  comparatively  free  from  the  marvelous, 
containing  nothing  essentially  incredible  ;  Paul's  cure 
of  the  sick  on  the  island  of  Melita  (Malta)  being 
explicable  in  such  ways  as  we  may  see  fit  to  explain 
similar  incidents  so  commonly  reported  in  modern 
days.  All  the  rest  that  this  eye-witness  tells  is  as 
natural  as  the  day,  and  fully  accords  with  the  sound 


*  See  also  20 :  13,  14 ;  21:12, 


288        I'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

observation  that  the  biggest  stories  are  told  by  persons 
who  were  not  there. 

But  the  compiler  had  other  sources  for  his  account 
of  Paul  which  were  not  written  by  eye-witnesses, 
sources  full  of  marvel ;  and  it  belonged  to  his  plan  not 
to  let  Paul  fall  below  Peter  in  any  respect.  So  we 
are  told  that  when  Paul  and  Silas  had  been  seized, 
beaten,  and  cast  into  prison  at  Philippi  in  Macedonia, 
"  suddenly  there  was  a  great  earthquake  ;  and  immedi- 
ately all  the  doors  were  opened,  and  every  one's  bands 
were  loosed."  At  Ephesus,  where  he  remained  two 
years,  "God  wrought,"  runs  the  narrative,  "special 
miracles  by  the  hands  of  Paul ;  insomuch  that  even 
handkerchiefs  or  aprons  were  carried  from  his  body  to 
the  sick,  and  the  diseases  departed  from  them,  and  the 
evil  spirits  went  out."  However,  the  writer's  trust- 
worthy data  in  regard  to  Paul  are  much  more  exten- 
sive than  what  he  had  concerning  Peter,  and  he  has 
less  need  to  fill  out  his  narrative  with  stories  of  this 
kind.  Largely  delivered  from  the  enslavement  to 
legend  so  apparent  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  work,  he 
proceeds  to  outline  the  main  features  of  a  great  career, 
bringing  to  the  task  a  literary  skill  not  found  else- 
where in  the  New  Testament ;  a  love  for  his  hero 
which  is  infectious,  seen  in  many  a  touch  of  tender- 
ness ;  and  a  devotion  to  the  Christian  cause  akin  to 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  289 

that  of  Paul  himself.  The  great  narrative  is  not  to 
be  epitomized,  it  is  to  be  pored  over  and  v^rept  over, 
to  be  prized  as  one  of  the  rarest  treasures  of  antiquity, 
preserving  the  memory  of  a  mighty  soul  and  furnish- 
ing a  glimpse  of  the  real  man,  the  true  disciple  of 
Jesus  behind  all  the  dogmatics  and  strange  philosophy 
that  grew  up  about  his  name.  Nowhere  in  the  epistles 
is  the  heart  of  Paul  revealed  as  in  the  account  of  his 
farewell  to  the  elders  of  the  church  at  Ephesus. 
Having  called  the  elders  together  he  said  to  them : 

"  Ye  yourselves  know,  from  the  first  day  that  I 
came  into  Asia,  after  what  manner  I  have  been  with 
you  the  whole  time,  serving  the  Lord  with  all  humil- 
ity, and  with  tears,  and  trials  which  befell  me  by  the 
plots  of  the  Jews  ;  how  I  kept  back  nothing  that  was 
profitable,  but  have  made  it  known  to  you,  and  have 
taught  you  publicly,  and  from  house  to  house ;  testi- 
fying to  both  Jews  and  Greeks  repentance  toward 
God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus. 

<*And  now,  behold,  I  go,  bound  in  my  spirit,  to 
Jerusalem,  not  knowing  the  things  that  will  befall  me 
there ;  save  that  the  Holy  Spirit  witnesseth  to  me  in 
every  city,  saying  that  bonds  and  afflictions  await  me. 
But  I  count  life  of  no  value  to  me,  so  that  I  may 
finish  my  course  and  the  ministry  which  I  received 
from  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  glad  tidings  of  the 
grace  of  God. 

"  And  now,  behold,  I  know  that  ye  all  among  whom 
I  went  about  preaching  the  kingdom  will  see  my  face 
no  more.  Wherefore  I  testify  to  you  this  day  that  I 
am  pure  from  the  blood  of  all  men ;  for  I  have  not 


290        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

shunned  to  declare  to  you  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 
Take  heed,  therefore,  to  yourselves,  and  to  all  the 
flock  over  which  the  Holy  Spirit  made  you  overseers, 
to  feed  the  church  of  the  Lord,  which  he  purchased 
with  his  own  blood.  For  I  know  this,  that  after  my 
departure  grievous  wolves  will  enter  in  among  you, 
not  sparing  the  flock.  And  from  among  yourselyes 
will  men  arise  speaking  perverse  things  to  draw  away 
the  disciples  after  them.  Therefore  be  watchful,  and 
remember  that  for  the  space  of  three  years,  night  and 
day,  I  ceased  not  to  warn  every  one  with  tears. 

"  And  now  I  commend  you  to  God,  and  to  the  word 
of  his  grace,  who  is  able  to  build  you  up,  and  to  give 
you  an  inheritance  among  all  the  sanctified.  I  have 
coveted  no  man's  silver,  or  gold,  or  apparel.  Ye 
yourselves  know  that  these  hands  ministered  to  my 
necessities  and  to  those  that  were  with  me.  In  all 
ways  I  showed  you  that  so  laboring  ye  ought  to  sup- 
port the  weak,  and  to  remember  the  words  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  that  he  himself  said,  *  It  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive.' " 

And  having  thus  spoken,  he  kneeled  down  and 
prayed  with  them  all.  And  they  all  wept  sorely,  and 
fell  on  Paul's  neck  and  kissed  him  ;  sorrowing  most 
of  all  for  the  word  which  he  had  spoken,  that  they 
were  to  see  his  face  no  more.  And  they  accompanied 
him  to  the  ship. 

In  all  the  fourteen  epistles  attributed  to  Paul  there 
is  not  so  important  a  quotation  from  the  words  of 
Jesus  as  the  one  incorporated  in  the  above  address, 
nor  is  there  anywhere  in  them  so  clear  a  manifesta- 
tion of  Jesus'  spirit.  Is  it  to  be  believed  that  the 
man  who  preserved  to  us  this  beautiful  and  tender 


Acts  of  the  Apostles  I91 

picture  of  Paul  did,  with  the  epistles  to  the  Galatians 
and  to  the  Corinthians  before  him,  deliberately  con- 
contradict  the  statements  of  Paul,  give  to  Peter  the 
credit  that  belonged  to  Paul  of  first  opening  the  door 
of  the  Church  to  gentiles,  and  grossly  misrepresent 
the  relations  subsisting  between  Paul  and  the  Jerusa- 
lem apostles  ?  The  theory  has  been  long  prevalent 
that  there  was  a  bitter  contention  in  the  Church  about 
the  middle  of  the  first  century,  as  shown  in  the  first 
chapters  of  Galatians ;  that,  after  two  or  three  genera- 
ations,  this  contention  being  a  thing  of  the  past,  the 
writer  of  Acts,  with  a  view  to  remove  the  scandal  of 
an  apparent  quarrel  between  apostles,  undertook  to 
give  another  representation  of  the  case,  to  show  that, 
while  there  was  a  real  struggle,  it  was  carried  on  in  a 
Christ-like  spirit  and  settled  by  mutual  concessions ; 
but  the  real  truth  of  the  case  has  been  supposed  to 
lie  in  the  epistle.  This  has  been  to  put  the  author  of 
Acts  and  of  the  Third  Gospel  in  a  decidedly  unfavor- 
able light,  as  more  or  less  of  a  dissembler.  There 
is  a  disposition  now  to  rescue  him  from  this  imputa- 
tion, and  to  do  it  with  no  detriment  to  the  good  name 
of  Paul. 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that  in  the  whole  of  Acts,  more 
than  half  of  which  is  devoted  to  the  career  of  Paul, 
with  obvious  sympathy  in  his  aims  and  admiration  of 


292        'fhe  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

his  achievements,  there  is  no  slightest  reference  to 
him  as  an  author,  no  word  of  the  elaborate  treatises, 
entitled  epistles,  making  up  in  volume  three-tenths  of 
the  New  Testament,  which  he  is  commonly  supposed 
to  have  written  in  these  very  years,  and  which,  if 
really  his,  could  not  but  be  regarded  as  among  the 
important  acts  of  the  apostle.  How  could  such  an 
omission  be  made  by  a  writer  who  had  his  eyes  so 
open  to  the  Hterary  world  that,  in  sitting  down  to  the 
preparation  of  what  he  calls  his  "former  treatise,"  he 
could  not  refrain  from  referring  to  the  numerous 
books  already  extant  on  the  same  subject  ?  Here  is 
a  problem  that  calls  loudly  for  elucidation,  and  to  it 
we  must  next  address  ourselves. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

The  Pauline  Literature. 

Bulk  of  the  material  —  Not  mentioned  in  Acts  —  Contrast  with  Gos- 
pel teaching  —  Difficulty  of  supposing  that  it  could  come  out  of 
the  first  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  preaching  of  Jesus  —  Re- 
duction of  its  bulk  as  a  means  of  reducmg  the  difficulty  —  Puzzle 
remains  so  long  as  any  of  the  epistles  are  credited  to  Paul  — 
Doctrine  that  of  a  later  time  —  References  to  Paul  such  as  no 
sensible  person  makes  of  himself — Realistic  personal  allusions 
not  beyond  the  power  of  invention  —  Writings  not  Paul's  — 
Work  of  a  group  in  first  half  of  second  century  —  The  real  Paid 
—  Value  of  the  epistles  —  Cast  historical  light  on  Church  of 
second  century  —  Corinthians  —  Romans  —  Philippians  —  Gala- 
tians  —  Paulinism. 

THE  word  literature  is  here  employed  to  cover 
the  canonical  writings  at  one  time  and  another 
attributed  to  Paul,  because  some  of  them  are  in 
the  nature  of  regular  disquisitions,  too  extended  and 
discursive  to  be  called  epistles  or  letters.  Indeed  it 
is  the  bulk  of  this  material  that  first  strikes  the  casual 
reader,  amounting  as  it  does  —  including  the  little 
epistles  of  James  and  Peter  which  are  discussions  of 
Paulinism  —  to  one-third  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
reader  is  greatly  surprised  at  this  if  he  has  already 
noted  that  in  Acts  no  mention  is  made  of  anything 


294       '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

having  been  written  by  Paul.  As  he  dips  into  the 
substance  of  these  epistles  his  surprise  increases,  for 
he  finds  them  dealing  with  knotty  and  obscure  matters, 
with  "unknown  tongues,"  with  meats  offered  to  idols, 
with  resurrection  and  predestination,  with  the  author- 
ity of  Jewish  Law,  and  numerous  other  intricate  prob- 
lems, all  in  strange  contrast  with  the  sweet  simplicity 
of  Jesus  in  the  synoptic  gospels.  The  mystified  reader 
turns  to  the  conventional  authorities,  and  is  there 
told  that  Paul  wrote  his  epistles,  all  thirteen  of  them 
(or  fourteen,  if  Hebrews  is  his),  between  a.  d.  52  and 
62  ;  that  is  to  say,  from  twenty  to  thirty  years  after 
the  crucifixion,  while  the  words  of  Jesus  were  still 
ringing  in  the  ears  of  thousands  of  people.  More 
than  ever  puzzled,  the  reader,  pricked  to  earnest  in- 
quiry, goes  back  to  the  epistles  and  laboriously  reads 
them  through,  a  task  to  which  he  must  give  quite  a 
little  time,  for  he  finds  them  full  of  hard  thinking, 
curious  philosophizing,  noble  ethics,  noble  piety,  with 
a  great  emphasis  on  the  official  functions  of  the  Christ 
in  working  out  the  redemption  of  the  world,  but  mak- 
ing hardly  a  reference  to  any  event  in  the  life  of  Jesus, 
scarcely  ever  quoting  a  word  from  him.  And  this, 
if  the  popular  notion  of  their  date  is  correct,  at  a 
time  when  the  air  was  full  of  his  words,  when  loving 
disciples  were  passing  them  from  mouth  to  mouth. 


a  he  Pauline  Literature  295 

carefully  writing  them  down,  gathering  them  from  far 
and  near  as  more  precious  than  gold,  and  wearing  them 
next  their  heart !  How  clashes  upon  the  voice  of  the 
Nazarene  this  arid  discussion  of  the  relative  advantages 
of  Jew  and  gentile,  justification  by  faith  or  justification 
by  works,  election  and  reprobation,  atonement  once 
for  all  doing  away  with  the  Law  !  The  inquirer  won- 
ders if  these  doctrinal  epistles  represent  the  preach- 
ing of  Paul,  and,  turning  again  to  Acts,  finds  that  the 
apostle's  preaching  was  of  "the  things  concerning 
Jesus" ;  that  at  Ephesus  this  was  so  well  understood 
that  strolling  exorcists  adopted  this  form  of  conjura- 
tion :  "  I  adjure  you  by  that  Jesus  whom  Paul  preach- 
eth " ;  that  in  the  synagogue  at  Thessalonica  he 
summed  up  all  in  the  words,  "  Jesus  whom  I  am  mak- 
ing known  to  you."  Evidently,  thinks  the  inquirer, 
he  must  have  said  much  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  repeated 
many  of  his  words.  How  then  could  he,  how  could 
any  Christian  leader,  in  those  years  have  written  these 
epistles } 

This  is  a  question  which  in  one  form  or  another 
has  presented  itself  to  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
readers,  and  vain  are  all  the  efforts  of  scholars  from 
Tertullian  down  to  answer  it.  It  is  one  of  the  ques- 
tions that  never  can  be  answered,  for  it  asks  an  expla- 
nation of  the  impossible.      Critical  inquiry  until  re- 


296        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

cently  has  not  squarely  faced  the  problem,  but  has 
sought  to  reduce  its  gravity  by  a  process  of  elision, 
throwing  out  much  of  this  material  and  crediting  only 
the  remainder  to  Paul.  The  process  naturally  began 
with  Hebrews,  as  that  writing  does  not  claim  to 
be  his,  and  tradition  is  not  unanimous  in  ascribing 
it  to  him.  Its  apostolic  authorship  was  definitely 
denied  in  the  i6th  century,  and  Luther  and  Calvin 
acquiesced  in  the  verdict,  as  have  later  scholars  gen- 
erally. Before  the  close  of  the  i8th  century  doubts 
were  raised  as  to  the  **  genuineness  "  of  Romans, 
Ephesians,  Colossians,  I.  and  II.  Thessalonians  ;  early 
in  the  19th  century  as  to  Timothy  and  Titus.  The 
doubters  were  the  foremost  Christian  scholars  of  the 
period,  including  Semler,  Schleiermacher,  de  Wette. 
The  process  was  carried  far  by  the  Tubingen  school 
of  critics,  who,  under  the  lead  of  C.  F.  von  Baur,  re- 
duced the  number  of  epistles  actually  written  by  Paul 
to  four  :  Romans,  I.  and  II.  Corinthians,  and  Galatians. 
Here  the  method  of  exclusion  seemed  to  have  reached 
its  climax,  and  for  half  a  century  could  no  further  go  ; 
indeed  a  feeling  arose  that  it  had  gone  too  far,  there 
was  an  obvious  retrogression,  and  the  stamp  of  "  gen- 
uineness "  was  restored  to  this  and  that  epistle,  raising 
the  number  to  six,  seven,  eight,  nine,  ten,  according  to 
the  inclinations  of  the  investigator. 


'The  Pauline  Literature  197 

In  all  this  the  real  difficulty  to  the  thoughtful 
reader  of  the  New  Testament  was  not  touched.  That 
difficulty  lies  in  conceiving  how  such  a  ponderous  doc- 
ument as  Romans  —  to  cite  only  one  of  these  treatises 
—  could  have  appeared,  filled  to  overflowing  with  dis- 
cussion of  problems  which  are  never  once  raised  in  the 
gospels,  in  the  very  years  when  original  Mark  was 
taking  shape,  when  that  and  every  other  Christian 
writing  which  we  can  imagine  as  coming  into  existence 
dealt,  we  may  be  sure,  exclusively  in  recollections  of 
Jesus,  —  venturing  not  at  all  into  speculations  on  the 
origin  of  sin  and  the  quality  of  grace,  into  contrasts  of 
Christ  with  Adam,  of  the  law  of  faith  with  the  law 
of  righteousness,  —  raising  none  of  the  subtle  ques- 
tions which  in  the  second  century  came  to  occupy  the 
minds  of  Christians.  This  difficulty  was  not  in  the 
least  removed  by  the  criticism  which  postponed  for 
half  a  century  or  so  the  writing  of  ten  of  the  fourteen 
epistles  ;  the  full  force  of  it  remains  so  long  as  a 
single  one  in  the  Hst  stands  unquestioned.  The  basis 
of  criticism  has  been  wrong  in  so  far  as  it  has  taken 
profundity  of  thought,  well  -  developed  conceptions, 
sublime  assaults  on  the  old  Judaism,  sound  statement 
of  doctrine  according  to  modern  standards,  as  evidence 
of  the  hand  of  Paul.  It  is  precisely  the  advanced 
thought  of  these  epistles  which  makes  it  impossible 


29 8        '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

to  accept  them  as  actual  writings  of  his.  Not  but 
that  he  was  a  man  of  unusual  powers ;  he  was,  we  may 
well  believe,  the  ablest  man  in  the  Church  of  his  gen- 
eration ;  but  the  time  had  not  come  for  any  such  works 
as  these.  They  are  so  far  away  from  the  synoptic 
gospels  that,  even  with  John  and  Acts  intervening,  the 
unpracticed  reader  falls  down  who  attempts  to  step 
from  them  to  Romans.  Not  that  these  epistles  are 
spiritually  above  the  gospels,  but  that  they  traverse 
another  field,  a  field  that  could  not  have  been  entered 
by  those  who  had  been  contemporaries  of  Jesus. 

And,  now  that  the  question  has  been  fairly  pro- 
pounded, how  can  it  seem  to  a  rational  mind  other 
than  an  historical  inversion  to  take  these  high-wrought, 
philosophical,  doctrinally  -  developed  dissertations  for 
the  first  Christian  writings,  utterances  of  the  infant 
Church,  made  twenty,  thirty,  forty  years  before  the 
first  of  our  gospels  saw  the  light  ?  Are  we  to  suppose 
that  the  writer  of  Mark,  of  even  "original'*  Mark, 
when  he  set  himself  to  the  task  of  telling  the  story  of 
Jesus,  had  before  him  these  thirteen  epistles }  or  the 
four  principal  ones  1  or  even  Romans  }  What  could 
the  poor  Roman  converts  of  the  year  59,  who  had 
not  seen  the  gospels,  make  of  such  a  disquisition  as 
that  ?  What  could  any  of  us  do  with  it  as  a  primary 
lesson-book  of  religion  }    What  would  be  thought  of  a 


T'he  Pauline  Literature  299 

Sunday-school  superintendent  who  should  lay  out  a 
course  of  study  for  the  children,  commencing  with  this 
epistle  ?  It  would  be  of  a  piece  with  the  unwisdom 
of  beginning  a  course  of  mathematics  with  geometry 
or  the  calculus.  Yet  it  is  commonly  supposed  that 
this  was  the  first  book  of  instruction  in  the  new 
religion  put  into  the  hands  of  the  early  Christians ! 

Not  only  are  the  doctrines  which  are  set  forth  in  the 
epistles  greatly  more  developed  than  they  could  have 
been  at  the  date  supposed,  even  the  phraseology  points 
to  a  later  time.  Assuredly,  the  titles  "Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,'*  "  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  were  never  used 
by  men  who  had  been  contemporaries  of  Jesus.  Nor 
did  he  receive  from  any  of  them  such  appellations  as 
« the  Lord  of  glory,"  "  Christ,  our  passover,"  "  the  last 
Adam,"  "God,  blessed  for  ever."  So,  too,  there  is 
presupposed,  in  the  four  principal  epistles,  as  in  the 
rest,  in  those  early,  formative  days,  a  thoroughly  or- 
ganized Church  such  as  existed  in  the  second  century, 
with  important  congregations  in  Rome  and  in  Corinth, 
wealthy,  having  a  paid  ministry  (L  Cor.  9  :  14),  making 
contributions  for  distant  objects  (IL  Cor.  8  :  14  ff.). 
The  church  in  Rome,  which,  if  it  existed  in  59,  must 
have  been  made  up  of  the  merest  handful,  is  described 
as  already  "  famous  throughout  the  whole  world,"  and 
Paul,  who  had  never  been  there,  is  made  to  mention 


300       l^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

twenty-seven  persons  of  the  membership  with  whom 
he  is  personally  acquainted.  Very  skillful  is  the 
assumption  of  the  character  of  Paul  by  the  writers, 
but  here  and  there  in  spite  of  themselves  the  artifice 
is  betrayed,  the  fact  glimmers  through  that  Paul  and 
his  work  were  already  things  of  the  past.  Occasion- 
ally the  slip  is  made  of  having  him  speak  in  the  past 
tense  of  his  work,  as  of  something  finished,  long  gone 
by.  It  is  a  work  "which  Christ  wrought  through 
me"  ;  "I  laid  the  foundation,  another  buildeth  there- 
on" ;  "I  brought  myself  under  bondage ;  to  the  Jews 
I  became  as  a  Jew;  to  the  weak  I  became  weak." 
The  personal  references  to  Paul  are,  many  of  them, 
such  as  no  sensible  person  ever  makes  concerning 
himself,  but  just  such  as  adoring  friends  and  followers 
are  likely  to  make  :  "  I  labored  more  abundantly  than 
they  all "  ;  "I  reckon  that  I  am  not  a  whit  behind  the 
very  chief  est  apostles."  Both  the  Corinthians  and  the 
Philippians  are  earnestly  enjoined  :  "  Be  ye  imitators 
of  me  " ;  and  to  the  Thessalonians  he  couples  himself 
with  the  Lord  as  an  example :  "Ye  became  imitators 
of  us  and  of  the  Lord."  Whole  pages  of  this  self- 
laudation  occur  here  and  there  which  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  any  respecter  of  Paul  can  imagine  coming  from 
his  hand. 

A  consideration  which,  with  able  critics,  puts  the 


"T^he  Pauline  Literature  301 

Pauline  authorship  of  Romans  out  of  the  question  is 
the  fact  that  it  contains  an  apparent  reference  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  as  an  event  already  past 
(11  :  11-24).  Now,  Jerusalem  fell  in  70,  six  years 
after  Paul  suffered  martyrdom.  A  person  writing  in 
the  name  of  Paul  could  not  commit  the  error  of  mak- 
ing him  refer  to  this  event,  until  time  enough  had 
elapsed,  say  forty  or  fifty  years,  to  confuse  the  dates 
in  his  mind.  The  same  is  to  be  said  of  I.  Thessaloni- 
ans  2:16,  where  there  is  a  perfectly  obvious  reference 
to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  These  writers,  who 
may  not  have  been  born  at  the  time  of  that  awful 
tragedy,  and  who  had  not  at  hand  books  of  chronology 
for  guidance,  got  the  mistaken  impression  that  it  pre- 
ceded the  death  of  Paul. 

It  will  of  course  be  urged,  as  it  has  been,  that  some 
of  these  epistles,  notably  Corinthians,  contain  so  many 
personal  allusions,  and  allusions  so  realistic,  as  to  be 
beyond  the  power  of  invention.  But  to  the  power  of 
invention  it  will  not  do  to  set  any  such  limits.  Too 
many  stories  have  been  so  told  as  to  pass  for  narrative 
of  actual  fact,  to  leave  any  force  in  such  a  sweeping 
statement.  The  consideration  to  be  sure  has  its  bear- 
ing, and  is  not  to  be  ignored,  but  its  weight  is  more 
than  balanced  by  the  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  admitting  the  authorship  of  Paul.     How  is  it  con- 


302        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ceivable,  if  the  epistles  preceded  the  gospels,  that  the 
gospels  should  not  contain  distinct  traces  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  epistles  ?  How  should  it  seem  like  pass- 
ing into  a  new  world  as  we  go  from  these  to  those  ? 
If  Paul  made  an  anterior  presentation  of  the  Chris- 
tian message,  why  is  that  message  not  repeated  in 
the  subsequent  writings  ?  Then,  too,  on  that  hypoth- 
esis there  is,  in  the  gospels,  wholly  inexplicable  omis- 
sion of  statements  of  fact.  For  instance,  we  have, 
I.  Corinthians  15:6,  the  declaration  that  Jesus,  after 
his  death  and  burial,  was  seen  by  "above  five  hun- 
dred brethren  at  once."  Now  if,  when  Matthew  was 
written,  this  epistle  had  been  in  circulation  thirty  or 
forty  years,  as  it  must  have  been  if  written  by  Paul, 
why  should  not  Matthew  and  the  other  gospels  con- 
tain that  very  important  statement }  Obviously  the 
gospel  writers  had  never  heard  of  it,  and  for  the 
good  reason  that  it  belongs  to  the  latest  stratum  of 
tradition,  and  was  not  added  till  far  into  the  second 
century. 

The  poverty  of  the  few  uncanonical  Christian  writ- 
ings of  the  second  century  that  have  come  down  to 
us  has  often  been  remarked,  the  sad  contrast  they 
present  to  the  canonical  writings  which  just  preceded 
them  being  held  to  show  the  falling  off  from  inspired 
to  uninspired  literature.      Really,  what  explains  the 


'The  Pauline  Literature  303 

meagerness  and  inferiority  of  extra-canonical  Christian 
literature  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  century  is  the 
fact  that  so  much  of  the  best  writing  of  the  time  was 
carried  back  and  credited  to  Paul ;  the  leavings  were 
unavoidably  poor.  The  Apostolic  Fathers  are  made 
to  look  a  feeble  folk. 

The  new  view  disposes  of  the  anomalous  situation 
in  which  Paul  has  a  clearer  setting  than  Jesus  himself, 
—  in  which  he  stands  disclosed  to  the  world  in  writ- 
ings older  than  any  gospel,  and  twice  over  more 
voluminous.  It  sets  the  New  Testament  characters 
in  a  more  nearly  just  proportion.* 

What  we  have,  then,  in  the  thirteen  epistles  bearing 
the  name  of  Paul,  and  in  the  four  others  of  kindred 
substance,  is  the  work  of  a  group  of  writers  —  twenty 
or  more  of  them  there  may  have  been,  as  some  of  the 
pieces  bear  the  marks  of  more  than  one  hand  —  who 
flourished  from  the  close  of  the  first  to  the  middle  of 
the  second  century ;  men  of  rare  gifts,  all  swayed  by 
the  wave  of  thought  which,  set  in  motion  by  Paul,  was 
in  those  years  swelling  to  ever  greater  dimensions  — 
those  writing  in  his  name  being  his  avowed  followers 


*  A  more  extended  presentation  of  the  subject  from  the  new  point 
of  view  will  be  found  in  the  works  of  Professor  W.  C.  van  Manen, 
D.  D.  In  English,  see  his  articles,  "  Paul,"  **  Romans,"  "  Philippians," 
"  Philemon,"  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica. 


304        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

and  representatives.  The  doctrines  they  present  are 
developments  in  certain  directions  of  Paul's  thought, 
views  which  it  seemed  to  them  he  must  have  held  had 
he  been  in  their  places.  It  does  not  occur  to  them 
that  they  are  committing  any  impropriety  in  assuming 
to  speak  for  him  and  in  his  name ;  —  indeed,  this  was 
entirely  in  accord  with  ancient  custom,  is  what  is 
admitted  on  all  hands  to  have  been  done  in  the  case 
of  tDne  or  more  of  these  epistles.  The  newer  school 
of  critics  has  no  new  principles  of  criticism ;  it  sim- 
ply applies  to  all  of  these  writings  principles  which 
had  before  been  applied  to  three-quarters  of  them. 
What  the  epistles  tell  us  of  Paul  is  the  tradition  of 
him  which  subsisted  at  the  time  of  their  writing,  skill- 
fully worked  over  and  put  into  his  mouth,  much  as 
was  done  for  the  purpose  of  a  narrative  by  the  writer 
of  Acts,  who  had  affiliations  with  this  Pauline  group.* 
They  did  not  all  work  the  same  vein  of  tradition,  and 
so  they  do  not  altogether  agree,  but  only  Galatians  is 
in  marked  conflict  with  Acts  ;  and  Galatians,  let  it  be 
observed,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  two  chapters, 
is  a  rather  unedifying  composition.  As  to  Paul,  the 
truth  is  we  have  nothing  better  than  tradition  about 


*  Not  really  one  of  them,  or  he  would  never  have  gone  to  the 
trouble  of  writing  a  gospel.  Written  gospels  were  of  small  account 
to  the  Paulinists. 


^he  Pauline  Literature  305 

him,  and  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  tradition  will  be 
always  accordant  with  itself.  We  are  prepared  to  be 
told  in  one  place  of  Paul's  eloquence,  of  his  power 
with  all  sorts  of  assemblies ;  in  another  that  he  was 
"rude  in  speech,"  "his  bodily  presence  weak,  and  his 
speech  of  no  account." 

As  for  the  fancy  which  has  vitiated  many  great 
labors,  —  that  the  writer  of  Acts  had  Galatians  and 
Corinthians  before  him,  and  wrote  for  the  purpose  of 
smoothing  over  and  wiping  out  the  scandal  of  an  apos- 
tolic quarrel,  —  we  can  now  happily  set  that  all  aside. 
We  have  no  need  to  suppose  that  he  had  seen  these 
epistles,  or  even  that  they  were  written  before  Acts. 
We  have  only  to  take  the  one  and  the  other  represen- 
tation for  what  it  seems  to  be  worth.  The  result  is 
of  course  a  less  definite  conception  of  Paul,  but  a  little 
truth  outvalues  much  definiteness.  The  truth  appears 
to  be  that  Paul  was  only  a  somewhat  less  rigorous  Jew 
than  the  other  apostles ;  that,  thrown  more  into  con- 
nection with  the  outside  world,  he  more  readily  adapted 
himself  to  new  situations,  more  promptly  saw  the 
expediency  of  not  exacting  from  gentile  converts 
observance  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial.  Having  had 
some  Greek  as  well  as  Hebrew  instruction,  and  spend- 
ing years  in  Greek  cities,  he  had  become  in  a  measure 
cosmopolitan.     Though  reared  a  Pharisee,  he  was  a 


3o6        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

Roman  citizen,  in  which  fact  he  took  an  unmistakable 
pride,  as  did  all  the  circle  who  wrote  in  his  name.  In 
his  missionary  journey ings  he  presented  himself,  on 
his  arrival  in  any  place,  first  at  the  synagogue,  from 
religious  affiliation ;  his  next  recourse  was  to  the 
Roman  authorities,  who  are  represented  as  listening 
to  his  word,  and  occasionally  rescuing  him  from  peril 
(Acts  21  :  32  ;  22  :  26 ;  24  :  23  ;  27  :  43).  He  showed, 
according  to  Acts,  a  marked  partiality  for  Roman  rule 
and  rulers,  and  this  for  a  deeper  reason  than  the  per- 
sonal favors  received :  he  had  the  legal  turn  of  mind 
which  was  distinctly  Roman,  admired  Roman  law  and 
organization.  His  dream  of  a  universal  Church  squared 
well  with  the  existing  fact  of  a  universal  empire.  So, 
while  we  may  justly  take  with  some  allowance  the 
accounts  of  the  ready  conversion,  through  his  efforts, 
of  centurions  and  proconsuls,  we  can  believe  that  he 
neglected  no  opportunity  to  influence  every  official, 
civil  and  military,  with  whom  he  could  come  in  con- 
tact.*    His  Roman-legal  spirit  reacted  on  Jewish  con- 


*  For  Roman  proclivities  see  Acts  13:12;  16  :  38,  39 ;  i8 :  12-17  ; 
22  :  27-29 ;  23  :  10-35  »  ^6  :  24-32  ;  28  :  7-10.  The  tradition  of  Paul's 
correspondence  with  Seneca  is  of  significance  chiefly  as  indicatmg 
the  Roman  feeling  of  the  Pauline  school.  So  too  his  relations  with 
Caesar's  household  (Phil.  4 :  22) ;  the  representation  of  a  merely  nom- 
inal imprisonment  at  Rome,  with  his  martyrdom  left  out  of  record 
(Acts  28 :  30,  31). 


'The  Pauline  Literature  307 

ceptions  and  customs  in  the  Church,  and  by  it  the 
Christianity  of  the  middle  of  the  first  century  was 
transformed,  though  to  no  such  extent  as  implied  in 
the  epistles  bearing  his  name.  His  ideas,  less  pro- 
nounced, less  developed  than  the  epistles  would  have 
us  suppose,  were  resisted  by  the  Jerusalem  church, 
though  less  determinedly  than  we  are  told  in  Galatians, 
and  by  the  laity  rather  than  the  leaders,  if  we  may 
believe  Acts  2 1  :  20  fF.  He  led  in  a  great  universal- 
istic  movement  for  which  Jesus  had  prepared  the  way, 
and  in  which  the  initiative  may  well  have  been  taken 
by  one*  of  those  who  had  been  most  closely  associated 
with  Jesus.  However  opposed,  Paul's  movement  grew, 
his  convictions  acquired  ascendency,  —  took  great 
development  in  the  Church  after  him.  The  Pauline 
party,  fused  finally  with  the  Johannine,  became  su- 
preme, and  through  it  the  Church  acquired  a  theology. 
The  value  of  the  epistles  as  religious  writings  does 
not  depend  on  their  authorship,  any  more  than  does 
the  value  of  the  book  of  Psalms.  The  inscriptions 
and  salutations  are  indeed  invalidated  by  criticism ; 
but  whatever  in  the  epistles,  under  any  construction 
put  upon  them,  did  us  any  good,  remains  to  do  it  still. 
Though  departing  widely,  in  their  doctrinal  teaching. 


Peter  (see  chap.  XII). 


3o8        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

from  all  that  precedes  them  in  the  New  Testament, 
they  have  a  very  great  value  religiously,  ethically,  and 
historically  considered.  Indeed  their  historical  impor- 
tance has  been  rather  enhanced  than  diminished  by 
the  recent  criticism,  for  they  are  made  to  cast  a  much 
needed  light  on  the  condition  of  the  churches  in  the 
first  half  of  the  second  century.  The  state  of  things 
at  the  middle  of  the  first  century  is  easier  of  con- 
jecture, aided  by  what  may  be  gathered  from  Acts ; 
and,  besides,  our  notions  of  that  earlier  period  are 
only  thrown  into  hopeless  confusion  by  taking  the 
epistles  for  apostolic  writings,  and  so  as  incidentally 
reflecting  the  status  of  the  Church  in  apostolic  times. 
Something  has  been  done  by  scholars  of  previous  gen- 
erations to  set  the  testimonies  in  right  time-relations, 
independent  thinkers  having  pretty  generally  reached 
the  conclusion  that  the  epistles  of  Peter  and  James, 
Hebrews,  II.  Thessalonians,  Colossians,  Ephesians, 
Philemon,  and  the  three  pastorals,  came  out  of  a  time 
considerably  later  than  their  writers  would  have  us 
think.  But  these  epistles,  mainly  doctrinal  and  didac- 
tic, are  not  the  ones  which  most  refer  to  existing 
customs  and  practices,  the  organization  of  the  Church, 
its  trials  and  persecutions ;  therefore  they  do  not  fur- 
nish directly  or  indirectly  much  historical  information. 
The  ones  that  especially  do  this  are  the  four  —  or 


^he  Pauline  Literature  309 

let  us  say  six,  as  most  authorities  add  Philippians  and 
I.  Thessalonians  —  which  only  the  latest  school  of 
critics  has  ventured  to  place  where  they  may  his- 
torically inform  rather  than  misinform  us.  These  six, 
which,  from  their  doctrinal  development  alone,  we 
must  assign  with  the  others  to  the  second  century, 
give  (especially  Corinthians  and  Romans)  much  impor- 
tant information  regarding  the  churches  of  the  period. 
Though  what  is  said  about  the  church  in  Corinth 
does  not  well  hold  together,  being  the  work  apparently 
of  several  different  hands  writing  under  different  cir- 
cumstances, we  get  the  general  impression  that  the 
members  of  that  church  were  an  intelligent  class,  — 
they  must  have  been  so,  to  understand  such  com- 
munications, —  generous,  rather  affluent  (as  they  make 
liberal  donations),  but  coarse  and  even  bestial  in  their 
habits,  gorging  themselves  and  becoming  drunk  at  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and,  at  least  some  of  them,  in  their 
morals  exceedingly  reprehensible.  Still  there  must 
have  been  among  them  souls  of  a  high  order  of  culture 
and  refinement,  or  no  one  could  have  thought  of 
addressing  them  in  the  terms  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
first  epistle,  —  especially  of  the  famous  1 3th  chapter, 
that  unequaled  tribute  to  the  three  Christian  graces, 
setting  upon  Love  or,  let  us  say.  Human  Sympathy 
the  mark  of  distinct,  incontestable  superiority.     On 


3IO       ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  whole  we  get  from  the  epistles  to  the  church  at 
Corinth  the  notion  of  about  such  a  community  as  we 
should  naturally  expect  to  be  gathered,  after  fifty  years 
or  so  of  missionary  effort,  in  the  commercial  metrop- 
olis of  Greece,  and  one  not  far  from  Clement's  repre- 
sentation of  it  about  the  year  lOO. 

Romans  introduces  us  to  a  far  better-ordered  circle, 
a  thoroughly  well  -  trained,  well  -  organized  Christian 
church,  —  without  bishop,  presbyter,  or  other  later 
devised  officials,  to  be  sure,  but  having  its  prophet  or 
preacher,  its  ministry  of  charity,  its  teachers,  its  ex- 
horters.  The  intelligence  and  general  culture  assumed 
for  this  community  in  sending  it  a  treatise  of  this  sort 
constitutes  at  best  a  real  difficulty,  for  even  now, 
after  all  the  use  that  has  been  made  of  the  document, 
it  might  not  be  easy  to  find  a  church  in  Christendom 
that  would  well  understand  the  reading  of  it.  Those 
old  Roman  Christians  must  have  had  a  special  taste 
for  the  style  of  reasoning  displayed  in  the  epistle,  and 
must  have  been  thoroughly  well  tutored  by  their  lead- 
ers for  two  or  three  generations.  They  appear  also  to 
have  been  people  of  high  moral  tone,  for  no  reproaches 
are  brought  against  them.  It  is  obvious  that  they 
were  largely  Jewish  in  origin,  though  liberated  from 
Jewish  exclusiveness ;  for  the  writer  assumes  their 
acquaintance  with  and  interest  in  Jewish  history  and 


The  Pauline  Literature  311 

Jewish  Law,  and  they  are  supposed  to  hold  with  him 
that  the  old  ritual,  while  it  may  be  innocently  observed, 
avails  nothing  and  is  nowise  obligatory.  That  prob- 
lem was  long  before  settled,  and  has  for  him  and  for 
them  only  an  historical  interest.  Yet  he  sets  forth 
the  argument,  for  there  were  still  Jews  in  Rome  need- 
ing to  be  convinced.  Romans  may  have  been  written, 
thinks  van  Manen,  about  the  year  120. 

Philippians  brings  us  down  a  little  later,  showing  us 
a  church  with  more  machinery  of  organization  than 
had  the  church  at  Corinth  or  the  one  at  Rome,  having 
"bishops  and  deacons"  (i  :  i);  more  internal  diffi- 
culties, having  factions,  parties,  divergent  thinkers 
(i  :  15,  17 ;  3:2);  —  a  worthy  bishop's  letter,  full  of 
kindly  sentiment  and  good  advice. 

Galatians  contrasts  strongly  with  the  other  epistles, 
and  no  one  reading  it  after  Philippians  could  imagine 
it  to  have  been  written  by  the  same  hand.  Its  sharp 
anti-Jewish  tone  seems  to  preclude  the  possibility  of 
its  coming  from  a  Jew,  and  would  long  since  have  put 
Paul  out  of  the  question  as  author  but  for  the  un- 
fortunate theory  that  Paul  was  such  a  radical  repudiator 
of  Jewish  customs  and  ideas  that  he  could  make  open 
war  on  the  apostles  at  Jerusalem  —  a  theory  whose 
sole  support  is  this  epistle  and  some  equivocal  state- 
ments in  II.  Corinthians.     Acceptance  of  it  makes 


3 1 2        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  writer  of  Acts  untruthful,  and  brings  into  the 
primitive  Church  a  fierce  contention,  improbable  in 
itself,  and  of  whose  existence  there  is  no  sufficient 
evidence.  The  tradition,  whether  authentic  or  not, 
that  Peter  and  Paul  worked  together  fraternally  in 
building  up  the  church  at  Rome,  is  dead  against  the 
supposition  that  they  had  a  falling  out  in  Jerusalem 
over  the  very  question  of  going  to  the  gentiles  ;  that 
Peter  there  played  fast  and  loose;  that  Paul  called 
him  a  dissembler  (2:13),"  resisted  him  to  the  face," 
and  could  speak  contemptuously  of  him  and  of  James 
as  "those  who  were  reputed  to  be  somewhat  —  what- 
soever they  were,  it  maketh  no  matter  to  me."  Is  it 
to  be  believed  that  one  apostle  would  take  on  such  a 
tone  as  this  in  speaking  of  another  apostle,  a  fellow- 
worker  with  him  for  Christ  t  and  do  it  in  an  open 
letter  to  a  church .?  The  good  name  of  Paul,  his  rep- 
utation for  discretion,  his  success  as  a  leader,  forbid 
our  rushing  to  such  a  conclusion.  The  epistle  is  more 
likely  to  have  been  the  work  of  a  later  day,  done  not 
by  a  Jew,  as  Paul  was,  but  by  a  bitter  antagonist  of 
Judaism,  especially  prejudiced  against  Jewish  Chris- 
tianity, knowing  enough  of  Jewish  records  to  use  them, 
but  using  them  generally  in  a  manner  void  of  sense 
(3 :  16 ;  4 :  22-31).  The  writer  appears  to  be  a  Greek 
of  Jewish  extraction,  against  which  his  Greek  blood 


"The  Pauline  Literature  313 

rebels,  living  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  century, 
who,  knowing  of  the  Council  of  Jerusalem  at  which 
Paul  was  present,  and  that  there  was  then  considerable 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  gentiles  should  be 
received  into  the  Church,  exaggerated  the  conflict  to 
the  detriment  of  the  original  apostles,  and  made  Paul 
not  only  sole  representative  of  the  universalistic  idea, 
but  greatly  more  pronounced  than  we  can  reasonably 
suppose  him  to  have  been.  Into  the  midst  of  a  rancor- 
ous discussion,  and  following  upon  the  most  cutting  * 
remark,  has  been  injected  one  noble  passage  (5  : 
13-6:  10). 

The  pastoral  letters,  three  in  number,  two  to 
Timothy  and  one  to  Titus,  —  showing  further  struct- 
ural developments  of  the  Church,  —  and  the  note  to 
Philemon,  followed  on  at  no  great  distance.  Before 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  all  the  Pauline 
epistles  were  in  circulation. 

This  literature,  work  of  the  most  acute  and  pen- 
etrating minds  of  the  period,  had  an  immense  influ- 
ence, shaping  Christian  thought  for  good  or  ill  through 
the  centuries,  effecting  a  remarkable  transformation. 
Starting  from  the  claim  of  Paul  to  have  seen  Jesus 
and  taken  orders  direct  from  him,  the  Pauline  group 


*Gal.  5 :  12  is  an  extraordinarily  malicious,  not  to  say  vulgar,  ut- 
terance to  ascribe  to  an  apostle. 


314        "^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

cut  loose  from  dependence  on  the  written  gospel,  and 
made  for  themselves  a  gospel  of  their  own,  of  which 
the  center  was  the  risen  and  glorified  Christ,  and  the 
circumference  certain  doctrines  about  Christ  —  his 
gift  of  himself  for  the  sins  of  the  world  —  the  pro- 
pitiation effected  by  his  death  —  justification  by  faith 
in  him  —  his  resurrection,  typical  of  the  final  resurrec- 
tion of  all  who  believe.  These  are  points  substantially 
independent  of  the  gospel  record,  and  consequently 
Paulinism  paid  next  to  no  attention  to  the  record. 
While  as  rigorous  as  was  Jesus  in  respect  of  morals, 
and  having  a  more  strenuous  if  a  less  natural  piety, 
the  teachers  of  this  school  went  straight  away  from 
his  multiform  assertions  that  entrance  into  life  eter- 
nal is  through  doing  the  will  of  God,  and  declared 
that  salvation  is  by  faith  in  a  sacrificial  redemption. 
So  in  their  epistles  they  almost  never  refer  to  a  good 
thing  that  Jesus  did  in  his  lifetime,  scarcely  allude  to 
his  relations  with  the  disciples,  leave  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  and  the  parables  all  untouched.  His  life 
among  men  is  made  little  of.  He  is  not  held  up  as 
an  example  in  any  definite  action  of  his  life,  —  the 
nearest  approach  to  such  a  thing  being  I.  Peter  2:21, 
where  in  a  general  way  Christ's  patience  under  suffer- 
ing is  commended  to  the  consideration  of  slaves 
buffeted  by  their  masters. 


^he  Pauline  Literature  315 

While,  under  this  teaching,  uprightness  was  en- 
joined as  a  divine  requirement,  the  essence  of  religion 
was  a  belief,  and  not  a  course  of  conduct,  —  was  meta-^ 
physical  rather  than  living  and  practical.  Goodness, 
natural  or  acquired,  had  no  bearing  on  one's  final  des- 
tiny ;  "  by  grace  are  ye  saved,  through  faith,  and  not  of 
works."  Commending  itself  to  the  legal  Roman  mind, 
by  which  indeed  it  was  conceived,  Paulinism  had  rapid 
growth  in  the  second  century,  especially  in  the  West, 
where  it  dominated  from  the  first.  Its  Gospel  was 
a  system  of  thought^  differing  widely  from  the  Gospel 
that  preceded  it,  as  its  advocates  well  knew,  whence 
their  discontent  and  anxiety  when  preachers  voicing 
an  earher  tradition  came  to  the  churches  (Gal.  i :  6  ff . ; 
II.  Cor.  II  :  4).  Paul  is  even  made  to  call  it,  in  dis- 
tinction, "my  gospel"  (Rom.  2  :  16).  Its  Christ  was 
"the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  enthroned  in  glory,  "head 
of  all  principality  and  power,"  —  never  for  a  moment 
the  peasant  preacher  of  Galilee.  This  later  teaching 
completely  eclipsed  the  old,  and  was  steadily  developed 
and  strengthened  century  by  century,  —  refnforced  by 
the  very  foremost  thinkers,  illuminated  by  the  genius 
of  Augustine,  championed  by  Luther,  fortified  by 
Calvin.  Thus  has  it  come  down  to  the  modern  world 
as  the  veritable  Gospel  of  Christ ;  if  not  the  primitive 
form  of  that  Gospel,  at  least  fully  accordant  therewith. 


3 1 6        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

So  thoroughly  imbued  even  now  with  this  idea  is  the 
mind  of  the  Church  that  people  are  startled  when  it 
is  called  in  question,  and  great  scholars  who  see  that 
Paulinism  is  secondary,  a  transformation  of  the  orig- 
inal Gospel,  yet  declare  it  a  legitimate  outgrowth,  "  a 
new  and  higher  development  from  the  first  Chris- 
tianity."* A  remarkable  development  it  no  doubt 
was ;  —  but  this  is  to  be  borne  in  mind :  not  all  de- 
velopments are  into  higher  forms.  The  movement 
which  made  of  the  Gospel  a  system  of  thought,  a  set 
of  dogmas,  on  the  acceptance  of  which  fellowship  and 
salvation  are  conditioned,  was  a  prodigious  step  in  the 
wrong  direction,  for  which  the  Church  has  paid  dearly, 
and  which  certainly  must  yet  be  retraced.  We  have 
to  begin  anew  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  and  have 
before  us  the  task  of  making  religion  appear  to  be  a 
life  and  not  a  belief  —  a  task  which  ought  to  be  easy, 
but  which  is  rendered  enormously  difficult  by  the  age- 
long prepossessions  derived  from  Paulinism. 

And  these  prepossessions  are  directly  in  the  way 
of  any  right  understanding  of  the  Pauline  movement 
itself,  and  of  any  just  criticism  of  its  literature.  They 
who  with  the  New  Testament  in  their  hands  stolidly 
insist  that  the  epistles  are  coincident  with  the  gospels, 


*The  expression  is  van  Manen's.     It  is  defensible  only,  if  at  all, 
in  speaking  of  Christianity  as  a  doctrinal  system. 


The  Pauline  Literature  317 

—  that  they  are  only  another  way  of  saying  the  same 
thing,  —  are  beyond  hope  of  being  reasoned  with  on 
the  subject.  They  who  do  see  in  the  epistles  a  differ- 
ent pointing  to  the  way  of  life,  an  "  advance  "  upon 
the  gospels,  or,  let  us  say,  a  more  complete  revelation, 
generally  feel  constrained  to  hold  them  of  apostolic 
origin  or  at  least  of  the  apostolic  age,  —  current  opin- 
ion having  it  that  by  some  imaginary  statute  of  lim- 
tations  revelation  became  inoperative  at  some  undeter- 
mined moment  toward  the  close  of  the  first  century. 
This  is  to  tie  the  hands  of  investigation,  or  suborn  the 
investigator  to  bring  in  a  certain  verdict.  Almost 
everywhere  the  ascendency  of  Paulinism  is  still  so  com- 
plete in  the  churches  that  return  to  the  simplicity  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  would  appear  to  be  giving 
up  the  more  for  the  less  sacred. 

What  the  Pauline  literature  in  the  New  Testament 
is  to  be  taken  for  is  a  transformation  of  the  Gospel 
under  Roman  influence  a  century  and  more  after  the 
Christian  era,  effected  by  a  band  of  vigorous  and  most 
devoted  thinkers  on  whom  had  fallen  the  mantle  of 
Paul.  The  exaltation  of  the  crucified  one,  steadily 
growing  through  the  years,  had  directly  prompted  a 
mass  of  doctrine  about  him,  his  nature,  his  office  in 
the  redemption  of  such  as  are  foreordained  to  salva- 
tion, his  triumph  over  death,  his  ascension  into  heaven 


3 1 8        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

and  his  rank  there,  his  imminent  return  to  judge  the 
world,  —  grandiose  notions,  dwarfing  wholly  the  story 
of  his  wandering  footsore  and  weary  by  the  lake  and 
over  the  hills  of  Galilee.  In  the  developed  scheme 
was  something  worthy,  it  was  deemed,  of  an  ambassa- 
dor from  the  court  of  Heaven,  one  whom  God  "  ap- 
pointed heir  of  all  things,  through  whom  also  he  made 
the  worlds,  who  being  the  effulgence  of  his  glory,  and 
the  very  image  of  his  substance,  and  upholding  all 
things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  when  he  had  made 
purification  of  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high  "  !  With  such  conceptions  in  mind, 
one  of  these  writers  could  frankly  say  :  "  Though  we 
have  known  Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  we  know 
him  so  no  more."  They  had  a  more  "glorious  gos- 
pel," the  gospel  of  "  sound  doctrine."  At  all  events  it 
was  the  gospel  most  readily  acceptable  to  the  Roman 
world,  allying  itself  most  naturally  with  a  pomp  of 
ceremony  dear  to  the  hearts  of  converts  from  pagan- 
ism, and  so,  perhaps  better  than  the  original  Gospel 
could  have  done,  it,  in  a  manner,  served  the  age  in 
which  it  first  flourished. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
The  Johannine  Literature. 

The  Apocalypse  —  Authorship  —  Interpretation  —  Remarkably  suc- 
cessful prophecy  —  The  epistles  —  Fourth  Gospel  —  Compared 
with  the  other  gospels  —  Scene  of  Jesus*  activity  —  Order  of 
events  —  Acts  and  utterances  —  Author's  selection  of  imposing 
miracles  —  Absence  of  parables  and  of  the  phrase  "the  kingdom 
of  heaven  " —  Long  discourses  —  Doctrinal  purpose  throughout 
—  Indifference  to  facts  —  Studied  glorification  of  the  hero  — 
Date  —  Distinctive  features  of  the  four  gospels  reflect  the 
culture  of  four  successive  generations. 

THE  mind  of  the  Church  in  the  first  half  of  the 
second  century  showed  two  distinct  tendencies, 
the  permanent  literary  results  of  which  are  two 
great  divisions  of  the  New  Testament,  including  all 
or  nearly  all  of  it  except  the  synoptic  gospels.  Parallel 
with  the  development  of  Paulinism,  which  was  touched 
in  some  more  or  less  remote  way  by  a  Roman  influ- 
ence, sprang  up  a  group  of  writers  who  took  the  name 
of  John,  intensely  Jewish  at  first,  but  coming  later 
under  a  Greek  influence,  and,  especially  in  the  begin- 
ning, out  of  accord  with  Paulinism. 

About  the  close  of  the  first  century  was  produced 
an  apocalypse,  which,  for  the  purpose  perhaps  of  gain- 


320        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

ing  the  repute  of  apostolic  authorship,  called  itself  the 
Revelation  of  John.  The  author  nowhere  says  he  is 
the  apostle,  but  is  evidently  willing  that  anybody  should 
think  so,  and,  notwithstanding  the  multiplicity  of  Johns 
in  ancient  as  in  modern  times,  not  a  few  have  always 
insisted  that  this  John  is  no  other  than  the  apostle. 
On  the  other  hand  many,  beginning  with  Dionysius, 
bishop  of  Alexandria  at  the  middle  of  the  third  cent- 
ury, have  at  various  times  attributed  the  writing  to 
another  John.  Dionysius'  reasonable  suspicion  that 
there  may  have  been  more  than  one  John  was  much 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  in  his  day  two  separate 
graves  of  the  apostle  were  shown  at  Ephesus.  There 
is  tradition  of  one  John  the  presbyter,  occupied  about 
this  time  with  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor,  and  he  has 
been  much  talked  of  as  the  probable  author  —  a  con^ 
jecture  widely  adopted,  but  only  a  conjecture.  It  is 
safe  to  say  there  must  have  been  a  dozen  or  twenty 
persons  by  that  name  in  the  Church  at  the  date  in 
question,  any  one  of  whom  was  more  likely  to  write 
the  Apocalypse  than  the  apostle  who  must  then  have 
been,  if  living,  about  one  hundred  years  old ;  who  had 
been  a  fisherman,  and  who  is  expressly  referred  to  in 
Acts  as  an  "  unlearned  and  ignorant "  man.  The  writer 
of  this  book  gives  no  sign  of  old  age,  and,  though  his 
Greek  might  have  brought  on  him  some  derision  in 


The  Johannine  Literature  321 

Athens,  he  was  certainly  neither  unlearned  nor  igno- 
rant. Still  it  is  not  impossible,  though  highly  improba- 
ble, that  the  apostle  wrote  this  book  or  some  part  of  it. 

The  Apocalypse  has  had  the  most  extraordinary 
interpretations  ;  has  proved  a  regular  arsenal  for 
bellicose  Protestants  in  quest  of  prophetic  bombs  to 
hurl  against  the  Roman  Church.  They  see  that 
Church  and  its  agencies  in  all  the  hideous  pictures 
there  presented  —  in  the  scarlet  woman  drunken  with 
the  blood  of  saints,  the  beast  with  seven  heads  and 
ten  horns,  the  terrible  dragon  whose  tail  drew  down 
the  third  part  of  the  stars  of  heaven.  But  aside  from 
those  who  are  looking  and  longing  for  some  super- 
natural destruction  to  fall  upon  their  opponents,  the 
book  in  these  days  has  few  readers.  Its  symbolism 
is  little  intelligible  to  the  modern  mind,  which  is  intol- 
erant of  intentional  obscurities  and  hidden  meanings. 
We  are  so  accustomed  to  freedom  of  speech  that  we 
do  not  adequately  take  into  account  the  necessity 
men  once  were  under  to  communicate  their  deepest 
feelings  in  terms  which  none  but  the  initiated  could 
understand. 

The  book  be^ns  with  seven  arlHr^fi<;;eS|  one  to  each 
of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia,  the  whole  making  up 
three  chapters  whirh  ;^r^  so  void  of  r^^gtjnp  to  thf* 


rest  of  the  book  —  wherein  the  author  makes  a  covert 


322        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

but  most  terrific  assault  upon  the  imperial  power  of 
Rome  —  that  we  are  compelled  to  think  the  introduc- 
tion a  mere  foil  to  mislead  the  readers  for  whose  eyes 
the  work  was  not  intended  into  taking  it  throughout 
for  an  admonition  to  the  churches.  The  writer  is  a 
Jewish  Christian  who,  even  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  still  clings  to  the  fortunes  of  his  people, 
holding  that  God  will  yet  send  redemption  when 
Christ  shall  come  from  heaven  with  his  angels  to  turn 
and  overturn  the  world.  The  Roman  empire  —  for 
that,  in  one  form  and  another,  is  what  is  symbolized 
as  provoking  the  wrath  of  Heaven  —  is  to  be  swept 
with  the  besom  of  destruction.  Its  great  sin  is  not 
as  we  might  expect,  its  treatment  of  the  Jews  or  its 
persecution  of  Christians,  but  its  worship  of  the  beast ; 
that  is,  Caesar-worship.  "  What  the  book  predicts  is 
the  great  conflict  about  to  break  out  all  over  the  world 
between  Christianity  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Roman 
empire  (with  the  Roman  State  religion,  the  worship 
of  the  emperors)  on  the  other  "  (Bousset).  Nero,  that 
terror  of  the  world,  had  at  this  writing  been  dead 
some  thirty  years ;  he  was  to  come  up  from  hell  and 
lead  the  embattled  legions  of  the  accursed  power 
against  the  army  of  the  Lord  —  the  possible  return  of 
that  monster  to  the  world  he  so  cursed  having,  from 
the  time  of   his  death,  been  a  dread  apprehension 


fhe  Johannine  Literature  2>'^2> 

from  one  end  of  the  empire  to  the  other.  But,  let 
the  devils  do  their  worst,  the  triumph  of  Christianity 
is  sure ;  the  Lord  Jesus  with  his  mighty  angels  will 
fight  with  his  saints,  and  the  victory  of  righteousness 
will  be  complete.^  The  whole  battle-picture  is  but  a 
symbolic  representation  of  the  struggle  of  truth  with 
error,  of  good  with  evil,  by  which  the  Church  was  to 
overcome  and  transform  the  world,  bringing  the  "  holy 
city,  new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  out  of  heaven 
from  God." 

The  conception  is  of  the  noblest,  and  the  symbol- 
ism of  prophecy  meets  the  requirements  of  prudence, 
making  possible  in  this  enigmatical  form  an  utterance 
which  in  plain  terms  would  have  been  insane  audacity. 
Open  denunciation  of  the  worship  of  Caesar,  exulting 
prediction  of  the  fall  of  Rome  in  so  many  words,  were 
not  to  be  thought  of ;  but "  the  beast "  and  "  Babylon  " 
could  be  handled  without  gloves.  And  the  work  was 
done  in  a  masterly  fashion.  Less  easy  to  grasp  under 
the  changed  circumstances  of  modern  life,  the  Apoc- 
alypse will  yet  repay  the  student's  labor  who  gets  hold 
of  the  right  thread  for  its  unraveling,  for  it  gives, 
under  a  symbolism  borrowed  from  the  myths  of  all  the 
East,  a  faithful  picture  of  the  conditions  of  the  time, 
and  has  the  merit,  not  always  pertaining  to  prophecy, 
of  a  foresight  accurate  at  least  as  to  the  main  features. 


324        "^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

The  success  of  the  work  is  the  more  signal  and  com- 
plete in  that  it  is  unique  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
last  word  of  canonical  prophecy,  and  a  prophecy  uttered 
in  the  writer's  own  name  five  hundred  years  after  such 
a  thing  had  come  to  be  accounted  impracticable. 
Herein  lies  one  of  the  signs  of  the  tremendous  vitality 
of  the  Christian  movement  in  its  beginnings. 

The  furious  enmity  of  this  writer  toward  things 
Roman  belongs  to  a  stage  earlier  than  developed 
Paulinism,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  marked  by  a 
studied  deference  to  "the  powers  that  be," a  policy  of 
conciliation,  of  loyalty  to  the  government  under  any 
and  all  circumstances.  The  later  attitude  prevailed, 
and  even  in  the  Johannine  literature  the  harsh  note  is 
heard  no  more.  In  fact  the  subsequent  writings  of 
the  school  might  seem  at  first  glance  to  have  no  other 
tie  to  the  Apocalypse  than  the  common  name,  assumed 
or  reputed,  of  the  authors ;  but  on  closer  inspection 
we  see  that  the  tone  of  comfort  and  assurance,  the 
note  of  triumph  in  the  earlier  book,  are  taken  up  by 
the  otherwise  very  different  writings  that  follow. 

Three  brief  epistles  are  next  to  be  considered,  the 
last  two  the  very  shortest  "books"  of  the  Bible,  only 
about  three  hundred  words  each  ;  notes,  as  we  should 
say,  rather  than  letters ;  all  the  subject  of  much  con- 
troversy as  to  whose  they  are.     Quite  obviously  they 


'The  Johannine  Literature  ^^ic^ 

could  not  have  been  written  by  the  same  hand  that 
wrote  the  Apocalypse ;  many  think,  too,  that  they 
have  not  a  common  authorship  with  the  gospel  of 
John ;  and  further,  it  is  by  no  means  agreed  that  the 
three  epistles  are  of  one  source.  So  there  is  room  to 
think  that  in  this  literature  we  have  five  different 
writers,  or  more,  if  the  Apocalypse  is  regarded  as  a 
composite  work.  Only  one  of  these  could  by  any 
possibility  have  been  the  apostle,  and  the  only  one  of 
these  writings  from  whose  production  he  is  not  barred 
by  the  circumstance  of  time  is  the  earliest,  —  that  is, 
the  Apocalypse.  As  to  epistles  and  gospel,  which  are 
of  the  second  century,  apostolic  authorship  is  out  of 
the  question. 

Who,  then,  wrote  the  epistles }  There  is  scanty 
ground  for  saying.  The  writer  of  the  first  of  them 
does  not  give  his  name  or  ecclesiastical  designation ; 
we  have  the  name  only  in  the  title,  which  did  not 
originate  with  him :  "  The  First  Epistle  of  John." 
The  second  and  third  epistles  purport  to  come  from 
"the  elder,"  by  which  designation,  taken  with  the 
title,  in  which  the  name  of  John  occurs,  John  the  elder, 
above  mentioned,  is  apparently  indicated.  But  if  that 
John  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  these,  so  different  in 
language  and  style,  could  have  been  written  only  in 
his  name.     All  three  are  of  a  time  when  factions  and 


326       T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

heresies  were  springing  up  in  the  Church.  Toward 
these  the  writer  takes  on  a  dictatorial,  autocratic  tone, 
as  of  an  official  clothed  with  some  authority.  He  does 
not  argue  with  opponents  ;  he  pronounces  against 
them,  as  one  whose  word  is  final.  Withal,  he  is  a 
man  of  deep  spiritual  thought,  and  some  of  his  pas- 
sages are  among  the  sayings  most  treasured  by  devout 
souls.  Who  has  not  been  moved  to  tenderness  by 
such  words  as,  "  Behold  what  manner  of  love  the 
Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be 
called  children  of  God  "  .?  or  as  these :  "  This  is  the 
message  which  ye  heard  from  the  beginning,  that  we 
should  love  one  another  "  ;  **  God  is  love,  and  he  that 
abideth  in  love  abideth  in  God,  and  God  abideth  in 
him  "  }  And  how  grate  upon  these  some  other  things, 
such  as  the  summary  disposing  of  an  opponent  with, 
"  He  is  a  liar,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him  "  ! 

We  come  now  to  the  main  piece  of  the  Johannine 
literature,  known  as  the  Gospel  of  John.  This  work 
has  long  been  the  storm -center  of  New  Testament 
critical  controversy,  volumes  having  been  written  con- 
cerning its  date  and  authorship,  its  remarkable  diver- 
gence in  every  way  from  the  other  gospels,  its  value 
as  a  narrative  of  facts,  its  doctrinal  purpose.  The 
wide  range  and  consequently  sketchy  character  of  the 
present  work  will  permit  of  only  a  restricted  glance  at 


The  Johannine  Literature  327 

these  problems  as  they  now  present  themselves,  and 
at  such  phases  of  them  as  may  be  expected  to  interest 
the  general  reader. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  is  the  book  nearest  of  all  to  the 
heart  of  the  devout  Christian.  And  this  for  many 
reasons.  In  the  first  place  the  figure  of  the  Christ 
rises  there  to  something  like  the  dignity  it  has  in  the 
thought  of  the  present  time,  and  of  any  time  these 
sixteen  hundred  years.  Again,  the  words  of  Jesus 
are  much  more  expansive  and  effusive;  and,  as  the 
speaker  is  more  exalted  than  in  the  other  gospels,  his 
sympathy  and  tenderness  are  more  impressive.  And, 
too,  there  is  here  a  developed  doctrine  pf  HnH  anH  r>f 
the  soul,  of  sin  and  of  redemption ;  deep  spiritual  con- 
ceptions  of  life  and  of  love,  of  duty  and  of  destiny. 
Thus  this  gospel  has  been  called  with  great  affection 
a  revelation  of  the  heart  of  Christ. 

But  it  is  not  possible  to  stop  with  the  spiritual  pur- 
port of  a  narrative  which  follows  three  other  narratives 
all  professing  to  cover  the  same  ground ;  we  are  forced 
to  compare  it  with  them,  as  we  have  compared  them 
with  one  another,  in  order  the  better  to  satisfy  our- 
selves as  to  its  historical  value.  The  result  in  this 
comparison  is  in  striking  contrast  with  the  result  in 
the  other.  In  that  case  the  deepest  impression  was 
made  by  the  marked  agreements  of  the  three  synop- 


3^8        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

tists ;  in  comparing  John  with  them,  or  with  any  one 
of  them,  what  we  most  note  are  the  marked  diver- 
gences, the  absolutely  irreconcilable  statements. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning,  the  account  of  John  the 
Baptist  is  here  so  minimized  and  his  r61e  so  reduced 
as  to  give  no  such  impression  of  the  man  as  that 
obtained  from  the  synoptists.  There  he  is  a  prophet 
of  the  first  order,  preaching  repentance,  looking  for 
the  Messiah,  hoping,  yet  doubting,  that  Jesus  is  the 
long-expected  one.  Here  nothing  is  said  of  his  preach- 
ing of  repentance,  his  sole  function  being  to  testify  to 
the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  which  he  never  for  a  moment 
doubts,  the  fact  having  been  certified  to  him  by  revela- 
tion from  on  high.  His  position  is  thus  changed  to 
one  of  complete  subordination  ;  he  is  simply  a  witness 
brought  in  at  the  outset  to  testify  to  a  supernatural 
appearance  by  which  Jesus  had  been  indicated  to  him 
as  the  Christ. 

Passing  to  the  record  of  Jesus'  own  career,  we  find 
the  scene  of  it  represented  by  the  synoptists  as  being 
almost  wholly  in  Galilee,  the  only  instance  of  his 
going  to  Jerusalem  in  the  course  of  his  ministry  being 
at  the  very  last.  The  Fourth  Gospel  reverses  all  this, 
makes  Judea  the  principal  scene  of  his  labors,  with 
only  occasional  brief  visits  to  Galilee.  It  seems  to  the 
writer  better  to  comport  with  the  exalted  dignity  of 


'the  Johannine  Literature  329 

the  Master  that  his  work  should  be  done  mainly  in 
and  about  the  Holy  City.  The  order  of  events  is 
also  here  radically  changed,  so  far  as  reference  is  made 
to  events  before  reported.  The  expulsion  of  the 
traders  and  money-changers  from  the  temple,  accord- 
ing to  the  synoptists,  occurred  near  the  close  of  his 
ministry,  and  appears  to  have  been  the  incident  which 
fired  the  indignation  of  the  authorities  to  the  point  of 
resolving  on  his  death.  But  this  gospel  puts  it  among 
the  very  first  things  that  Jesus  did,  and  there  are  no 
grave  consequences.  The  Jews  from  the  beginning 
are  made  to  show  an  animosity  toward  him  not  indi- 
cated in  the  other  gospels  ;  but  their  enmity  is  without 
result  because  *'  his  time  has  not  yet  come  " ;  by  his 
divine  superiority  he  eludes  their  wiles.  As  has  often 
been  remarked,  the  Jews  are  referred  to  in  this  gospel 
as  though  they  were  a  people  not  of  the  nationality  of 
the  writer  or  of  Jesus.  In  speaking  of  the  Law  to 
the  Jews  he  is  made  to  say  "your  law  "(8:17;  10  : 
34) ;  to  the  disciples,  "their  law"  (15  :  25) ;  indicat- 
ing a  different  point  of  view  from  the  synoptists. 
Jesus  is  already  only  half  a  Jew  —  hardly  that ;  he  is 
Son  of  God,  not  son  of  David,  least  of  all  son  of  the 
carpenter. 

The  widest  divergences  are  in  regard  to  what  Jesus 
did  and  said.     Of  the  ''casting  out  of  demons,"  a 


33 o       'the  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

thaumaturgical  proceeding  common  in  the  old  time 
and  of  which  the  synoptists  give  many  instances, 
this  writer  says  not  a  word.  It  seems  to  him  too 
cheap  an  order  of  wonders  to  be  ascribed  to  the  Son 
of  God.  What  he  tells  of  him  in  the  line  of  marvel 
shall  be  of  the  most  remarkable  and  astonishing.  The 
feeding  of  five  thousand  on  five  loaves  and  two  small 
fishes  is  of  this  sort,  and  he  gives  it  substantially  as 
the  others  give  it  (6 :  2-14).  The  story  of  Jesus 
walking  on  the  water  is  also  sufficiently  striking ;  he 
takes  that,  but  enlarges  it  to  his  purpose ;  for,  while 
Matthew  and  Mark  have  him  walk  out  only  to  the 
boat,  John  heightens  the  marvel  by  making  him  walk 
the  storm-tossed  billows  clear  across  the  lake,  a  dis- 
tance of  some  eight  miles  (6 :  16-25).  The  only  cure 
of  sickness  which  he  relates  is  that  of  a  nobleman's 
son  lying  at  the  point  of  death,  and  this  cure  Jesus 
effected  without  ever  going  near  the  youth  (4 :  47-54). 
A  man,  cripple  for  thirty-eight  years,  is  conspicuously 
healed  at  Bethesda  (5  :  1-9),  and  in  Jerusalem  one 
born  blind  receives  his  sight  (9:6-16).  To  these 
are  to  be  added  what  is  expressly  called  the  first 
miracle  of  Jesus  (2  :  11 ),  the  turning  of  water  into 
wine,  and  what  appears  to  be  his  last,  the  raising  of 
Lazarus  from  the  tomb  four  days  after  his  death. 
The  cure  of  the  nobleman's  son  may  be  founded  on 


l!he  Johannine  Literature  331 

that  of  the  centurion's  servant,  but  the  Bethesda  heal- 
ing, the  wine  miracle,  and  the  raising  of  Lazarus  are 
unknown  to  the  synoptists.  It  is  inconceivable  how 
this  last  most  stupendous  of  miracles,  if  it  rested  on 
any  genuine  tradition,  should  have  been  omitted  by  all 
three  of  the  preceding  evangelists.  John  relates  it  in 
the  most  circumstantial  fashion  (11:  1-44)  and  at 
great  length,  representing  it,  as  he  does  all  the  miracles 
he  recounts,  as  a  sign,  a  testimony  that  the  worker  is 
the  mighty  Son  of  God ;  all  of  which  is  in  direct  con- 
tradiction of  the  synoptists,  who  make  Jesus  say  ex- 
pressly that  no  sign  would  be  given  (Matt.  16:  4; 
Mark  8:12;  Luke  1 1  :  29). 

There  is  also  irreconcilable  disagreement  as  to  the 
date  of  the  crucifixion,  John's  theory  of  Jesus  as  the 
"  Lamb  of  God  "  making  it  seem  fitting  that  the  great 
sacrifice  should  fall  on  the  day  when,  from  time  imme- 
morial, the  paschal  lamb  had  been  slaughtered.  The 
difference  of  reckoning  is  not  great,  but  it  is  an  irre- 
ducible difference. 

To  the  ordinary  reader,  however,  these  divergences 
are  less  striking  than  that  seen  in  the  report  of  what 
Jesus  said.  In  the  synoptic  gospels  his  utterances 
are  usually  brief,  marked  by  a  frequent  use  of  parables, 
and  turn  persistently  to  the  topic  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  and  its  coming ;  here,  on  the  contrary  we  have 


2^2        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

prolonged  discourses,  no  parables,  and  scarcely  a  ref- 
erence to  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  style  of  these 
discourses  has  no  likeness  to  that  of  Jesus  in  the  other 
gospels,  but  is  indistinguishable  from  the  style  of 
the  writer  himself,  so  that  sometimes  it  is  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  tell  where  a  discourse  ends  and  the 
narrator's  comments  begin ;  as  for  example  in  3  :  27- 
36.  We  miss  the  freshness  and  variety  of  topics,  so 
noticeable  in  the  previous  narratives,  and  are  conscious 
of  a  certain  monotony,  a  wearisome  recurrence  to  the 
same  themes.  There  are  traces  enough  of  the  other 
gospels  to  show  that  use  was  made  of  them  by  this 
later  writer,  but  he  has  so  transformed  the  Master's 
words  as  to  convey  ideas  not  suggested  by  the  previous 
statements.  In  the  synoptics,  Jesus  seeks  by  the 
expression  of  spiritual  truth  to  point  out  the  way  of 
life ;  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  he  is  himself  the  truth,  the 
way,  and  the  life.  A  developed  doctrine  both  of  him 
and  his  mission  is  set  forth,  such  as  was  not  dreamed 
of  in  the  early  decades  of  the  Church.  The  very  first 
lines  of  this  gospel  indicate  the  change  that  was  com- 
ing over  the  minds  of  Christians  at  the  time  concern- 
ing the  nature  of  the  Christ,  a  change  which  it  was 
the  special  purpose  of  the  writer  to  further.  It  is  a 
second-century  conception  that  he  champions ;  and  a 
reflection  of  that  period  is  seen  in  the  representation 


'The  Johannine  Literature  ^^^ 

that,  from  the  outset,  the  Jewish  partition  wall  was 
broken  down  and  salvation  offered  to  all  the  world 
(4  •  39-42  ;  1 2  :  20  ff .) ;  a  view  which,  for  the  purpose 
of  throwing  the  glory  of  it  back  upon  the  Master, 
ignores  the  whole  Pauline  struggle  for  this  very  thing. 
But  all  this  is  at  variance  with  the  facts  in  the  case  as 
we  have  them  from  every  other  source. 

Many  more  considerations,  all  pointing  the  same 
way,  might  be  adduced,  but  enough  has  been  said  to 
show  that  what  we  have  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  not, 
as  a  whole,  historical.  A  few  statements,  particularly 
toward  the  end,  taken  from  the  other  gospels,  are  to 
be  excepted.  Possibly  beyond  these  some  genuine 
tradition  which  escaped  the  scrutiny  of  the  synoptists 
may  be  lodged  here  and  there ;  some  tender  word  that 
Jesus  really  spoke.  We  should  be  glad  to  think  there 
is  some  actual  reminiscence  of  him  in  the  story  of  the 
Samaritan  woman,  and  in  the  comforting  chapter  be- 
ginning :  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  "  ;  but  gen- 
erally the  doctrinal  transformation  is  so  manifest  as  to 
preclude  any  such  notion.  The  discourses  are  to  be 
valued  for  what  of  truth  they  contain,  but  they  are 
the  writer's  and  not  the  Master's. 

The  view  we  are  compelled  to  take  of  this  gospel 
is  that  it  was  written  for  the  express  purpose  of  fur- 
thering certain  profound  conceptions  of  the  Christ  and 


334       ^-^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

of  his  relation  to  the  Church  which  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  writer  —  conceptions  succinctly  set  forth 
in  his  first  paragraph  (i  :  1-18),  as  if  in  frank  admis- 
sion to  all  readers  that  such  was  his  purpose.  He 
wanted  to  make  the  best  and  the  most  efficient  possi- 
ble statement  of  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of  his  school 
of  thoughtful  and  devout  Christians  whose  minds  had 
been  fertilized  by  the  Greek  influence  in  the  fecund 
second  quarter  of  the  second  century  ;  and  he  hit 
upon  the  plan  of  embodying  those  ideas  in  what  we 
should  call  a  sort  of  historical  romance,  giving  himself 
great  Hberty  in  his  treatment  of  his  characters,  putting 
into  the  mouth  of  the  exalted,  deific  Christ  what  in 
his  own  heart  he  felt  assured  was  the  very  truth  of 
God.  Starting  out  with  this  intention,  he  kept  the 
main  purpose  ever  uppermost  in  mind ;  adherence  to 
historical  fact  in  his  narrative  was  a  secondary,  unim- 
portant consideration  and  must  give  way  at  every  turn 
to  the  ruling  idea.  He  wrote,  not  to  relate  what  act- 
ually happened  a  hundred  years  before,  but  to  set 
forth  the  Gospel  as  it  had  come  to  stand  in  the  minds 
of  his  advanced  circle,  and  consequently  he  did  not 
feel  bound  to  follow  the  course  of  events  as  recited  by 
the  synoptists ;  taking  in  this  matter  much  the  same 
attitude  as  the  contemporary  Paulinists,  who  cared 
not  to  know  of  Jesus  "after  the  flesh,"  but  would 


^he  Johannine  Literature  335 

know  him  only  after  the  spirit,  that  is,  according  to 
their  conception  of  him.  Hence  a  general  indifference 
of  this  writer  to  the  facts,  extending  not  only  to  the 
statements  of  the  synoptists,  but  even  to  his  own  state- 
ments. Thus  we  are  told  (3  :  26)  that  the  people  flock 
to  the  preaching  of  Jesus  and  are  baptized ;  and  yet 
before  we  get  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  we  read  (3  :  32) 
that  "  no  one  received  his  testimony."  In  this  chap- 
ter he  states  over  and  over  that  Jesus  baptized ;  in  the 
next  he  says  Jesus  did  not  baptize.  After  telling  the 
story  of  the  feeding  of  five  thousand  on  a  mountain, 
the  writer,  representing  Jesus  as  wishing  to  escape 
from  the  furor  caused  by  so  great  a  miracle,  and  for- 
getting that  he  was  already  on  the  mountain,  makes 
him  go  up  again  (6:  15).  These  illustrations  show 
how  unimportant  in  the  estimation  of  the  writer  were 
the  facts  of  his  narrative.  What  he  was  solely  con- 
cerned to  present  was  a  picture  of  the  Christ  in  his 
earthly  passage  which  should  partake  somewhat  of  the 
glory  of  his  heavenly  state  ;  and  for  this  it  needed  to 
draw  a  veil  over  his  humiliations  and  to  invent  scenes 
in  which  his  superhuman  powers  should  shine  forth 
more  transcendently  than  in  the  previous  records. 

A  work  of  this  kind  would  be  attended  with  more 
difficulties  at  the  present  day  (though  novelists  of  little 
and  of  great  repute  have  ventured  into  the  same  field), 


;^^6        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

on  account  of  the  prejudice  against  handling  sacred 
characters  in  fiction.  The  conditions  at  the  time  of 
this  writing  were  very  different.  Besides,  a  work 
whose  very  purpose  was  to  enhance  the  sanctity  of  a 
sacred  name  commended  itself,  however  imaginative. 
Readers  were  not  critical ;  what  is  more,  they  partook 
of  the  writer's  views,  had  been  carried  along  by  the 
same  tendencies,  and  were  quite  prepared  to  accept 
his  representation  as,  at  any  rate,  spiritually  true. 

This  gospel  was  promptly  welcomed  in  the  circle  of 
Johannine  influence,  among  the  Paulinists  less  readily, 
making  its  way,  however,  before  the  end  of  the  second 
century.  **  Distinct  declarations  as  to  its  genuineness 
begin  to  appear  certainly  not  earlier  than  170  a.  d." 
(Schmiedel).  With  the  exception  of  II.  Peter  and  the 
little  Epistle  of  Jude,  —  two  writings  so  far  subsequent 
to  these  divisions  of  tendency  as  to  show  slight  trace 
of  them,  —  it  is  probably  the  youngest  part  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  ablest  authorities  place  its 
date  at  about  140. 

Definite  and  precise  indications  of  date  in  the  book 
itself  are  scanty  and  uncertain  ;  consequently  whatever 
gives  a  possible  suggestion  is  seized  upon  with  avidity. 
Jesus  is  made  to  say  (5  :  43),  "  I  am  come  in  my 
Father's  name,  and  ye  receive  me  not ;  another  shall 
come  in  his  own  name,  him  ye  will  receive."    This  ha.s 


^he  Johannine  Literature  337 

been  supposed  by  some  critics  to  apply  to  Barchochba, 
a  pretended  Messiah  who,  in  a.  d.  132,  led  the  Jews 
into  a  final  revolt  which  ended  in  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  the  Jewish  State  in  a.  d.  135.  If  this  is  the 
real  reference,  —  and,  in  view  of  other  indications  of 
date  pointing  to  about  this  time,  the  interpretation 
looks  plausible,  —  it  gives  a  very  important  clue  in 
furnishing  a  definite  limit  before  which  the  writing 
could  not  have  appeared. 

In  the  different  style  and  quality  of  the  four  gospels 
is  reflected  the  advance  in  culture  that  went  on  in  the 
Christian  communities  for  a  hundred  years.  First  of 
the  four  came  Mark,  rude  in  structure,  a  plain  state- 
ment by  a  plain  man  for  plain  people.  To  meet  the 
demands  of  the  next  generation,  when  converts  to 
Christianity  had  become  numerous  and  were  of  all 
classes,  a  more  extended  and  better  -  written  gospel 
appeared,  in  Matthew.  For  a  third  generation  of 
Christians,  which  included  many  cultivated  people,  a 
really  accomplished  writer  prepared  the  Third  Gospel. 
But,  with  a  difference  of  style  and  compass,  the  ground- 
work had  remained  the  same ;  in  all  three,  Jesus  was 
a  man,  and  a  member  of  the  despised  Jewish  race. 
Not  even  the  miraculous  origin  provided  in  Matthew, 
and  dwelt  upon  in  Luke,  could  relieve  him  of  that 
imputation ;  and  here  was  an  obstacle  to  the  publica- 


;^^S        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

tion  of  the  Gospel  among  the  Greeks,  who,  toward  the 
middle  of  the  second  century,  had  become  the  chief 
hope  of  the  Christian  propaganda.  The  Fourth  Gos- 
pel met  the  new  occasion  with  a  presentation  of  Christ 
as  the  divine  Logos,  independent  of  human  generation, 
existing  from  eternity.  Thus,  by  introducing  a  con- 
ception of  Greek  philosophy,  the  objectionable  Jewish 
nativity  of  Jesus  was  practically  disposed  of,  and  ac- 
ceptance of  the  Gospel  by  the  whole  gentile  world  was 
made  possible.  The  same  broad  culture  and  deep 
mysticism,  which  reached  out  and  added  to  the  Gospel 
this  Greek  idea,  spiritualized  the  doctrines  of  God 
(4:  21-24),  the  second  coming  of  Christ  (4:  16-18), 
and  the  resurrection  and  final  judgment  (11:  26; 
5  :  24),  and  in  one  great  utterance  cut  religion  in  its 
essence  free  from  forms  and  all  externalities  :  "  It  is 
the  spirit  that  giveth  life ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing : 
the  words  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit  and 
are  life."  While  the  writer  insists  stoutly  on  belief, 
his  mystical  statement  of  the  things  to  be  believed 
constitutes  a  very  different  proposition  from  the  legal 
rigidity  of  the  Pauline  theology ;  one  can  find  a  way, 
if  one  seeks,  to  accept  nearly  everything  he  requires. 
One  can  see  at  any  rate  that  this  gospel  saved  the 
Christian  Church  when  it  came  fairly  to  confront  the 
Greek  philosophical  world. 


CHAPTER   XV. 
Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament  Times. 

Religious  ideas  which  Jesus  assumed  as  current  beliefs  —  Immortality 
and  demonology  —  Jesus  and  his  aims  —  Idea  of  God  —  Human 
brotherhood  —  Unfailing  trust  —  Emphasis  on  the  resurrection 
subsequent  to  Jesus  —  Church  organization  —  Doctrinal  basis 
adjusted  to  gentile  prepossessions — The  atoning  sacrifice  — 
Availability  thereof  to  escape  the  death  of  sin  —  Multiform  no- 
tions of  resurrection  —  Decline  of  demonology  —  The  Johannine 
transformation  of  the  Gospel  —  Gain  and  loss  in  the  process. 

AS  already  shown,*  the  development  of  religion  in 
Israel  was  continuous  from  the  date  of  the  last 
Old  Testament  writing,  straight  on  to  the  min- 
istry of  Jesus,  the  gap  between  the  two  divisions  of 
our  scriptures  being  marked  by  more  than  usual  ac- 
tivity. Consequently,  in  coming  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment from  the  Old,  the  two  being  separated  by  the 
march  of  centuries,  we  get  another  and  very  different 
impression  of  social,  moral,  and  religious  conditions,  — 
an  impression  in  many  respects  as  of  the  modern 


*  Chapter  VII. 


340       '^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

world.  In  his  talks  to  the  people  Jesus  assumes  the 
prevalence  of  notions  of  God  and  of  human  duty,  of 
social  and  domestic  regulations  almost  identical  with 
those  of  our  day ;  even  his  most  advanced  utterances 
looking  toward  a  universal  brotherhood  are  received 
by  his  hearers  in  a  way  to  imply  that  they  have  been 
heard  and  discussed  before.  Contact  with  Greece  and 
Rome  for  several  centuries,  though  at  times  repulsive 
and  never  welcome,  had  its  effect  in  modifying  the 
Jewish  character,  in  shaping  the  current  beliefs  and 
practices.  The  most  striking  change  of  opinion  to  be 
noted  is  that  touching  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  a 
doctrine  for  which  the  Jewish  mind  had  little  affinity 
in  the  earlier  days.  Jesus  assumes  it  without  argument 
as  a  current  belief  of  the  people.  The  disbelievers  are 
only  a  small  sect,  no  larger  proportion  of  the  commu- 
nity, probably,  than  the  disbelievers  among  us.  For- 
eign influence,  which  wrought  so  decided  a  modification 
of  views  at  this  point,  was  not  without  its  effect  in  many 
other  directions  ;  but,  as  we  might  expect,  the  change 
was  not  always  for  the  better.  A  notably  unfavorable 
impression  is  given  in  passing  from  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  New  in  the  greatly  strengthened  demonology 
met  with  there.  The  first  three  gospels  and  Acts  are 
filled  with  stories  of  possession  and  exorcism  —  super- 
stitions which  cut  little  figure  in  earlier  Bible  times. 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       341 

The  preaching  of  immortality  in  the  centuries  im- 
mediately preceding  the  Christian  era  seems  to  have 
given  the  doctrine  of  demons,  which  belongs  properly 
to  primitive  man,  a  fresh  foothold,  and  we  have  the 
anomaly  of  a  really  advanced  civilization  demeaned  by 
this  unseemly  delusion. 

Judaism,  since  the  exile,  had  been  exposed  to  the 
peril  which  besets  all  forms  of  religion  strongly  ritual- 
istic, of  degenerating  into  a  mere  round  of  ceremonies, 
a  peril  which  was  ever  present  to  the  spiritually  minded, 
who  did  what  they  could  to  avert  it.  The  gospel 
record  begins  with  some  account  of  one  of  these, 
known  as  John  the  Baptist,  a  vigorous  preacher  of 
repentance,  who  in  his  one  rite  foreign  to  the  old  Law 
overflooded  and  obscured  the  interminable  priestly  re- 
quirements. And  John  was  but  one  of  many  who  in 
those  days  were  earnestly  seeking  after  a  better  way, 
all  unwittingly  forerunners  of  the  prophet  of  Nazareth, 
and  lost  to  view  in  his  greater  glory.  But  the 
fact  is  not  to  be  overlooked  that  there  were  those, 
and  many  of  them,  who  "prepared  the  way  before 
him." 

A  great  genius,  by  the  very  terms  of  the  designa- 
tion, has  about  him  something  of  the  extraordinary, 
the  inexplicable.  His  antecedents  do  not  to  our  eyes 
fully  account  for  him ;    his  arrival  partakes  of  the 


342        "The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

mystery  of  the  unforeseen  e'closion  of  a  new  variety  in 
the  plant  or  the  animal  world.  And  this  is  equally 
the  case  whether  his  appearance  be  in  the  field  of 
science,  of  art,  or  of  religion.  We  marvel,  but  we 
know  it  is  in  the  order  of  Nature.  We  do  not  well 
take  the  measure  of  a  genius  when  we  have  hirii  by 
our  side ;  much  less  can  we  do  it  when  he  is  separated 
by  an  interval  of  many  centuries.  There  is  reason  to 
think,  however,  that  modern  studies  are  leading  to  a 
better  apprehension  of  Jesus  than  has  ever  before  been 
gained.  By  not  crediting  him  with  things  he  did  not 
attempt  to  do  we  can  more  clearly  see  the  character 
of  his  real  achievements.  His  aim  was  to  effect  a 
reformation  of  Judaism,  and  only  because  Judaism 
would  not  be  reformed  did  the  bearers  of  his  word 
after  his  death  turn  with  it  to  the  gentiles.  What  we 
can  say  of  him  in  this  regard  is  that  he  took,  on  the 
whole,  such  an  attitude  toward  foreigners  as  to  make 
possible  in  the  later  time  a  proclamation  of  his  Gospel 
to  them.  He  is  to  be  studied  as  a  Jewish  prophet 
with  universalistic  feelings  and  tendencies  stronger 
than  had  before  been  manifested  by  any  of  his  nation, 
yet  still  considering  his  mission  to  be  to  "the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel  "  (Matt.  lo :  5,  6).  The 
apparently  authentic  story  of  his  interview  with  the 
Syrophcenician  woman  (Matt.  15:  21-28;  Mark  7: 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       343 

24-30)  puts  this  beyond  reasonable  doubt.  His  part 
was  to  preach  a  purer  rehgion  to  the  Jewish  people ; 
and  this  he  did  in  such  a  spirit  and  so  comprehensively 
that,  later,  it  was  found  a  religion  good  for  all  man- 
kind. In  his  hands  the  ritual  lost  its  supreme  impor- 
tance ;  though  he  observed  it,  he  counted  it  secondary. 
It  had  no  regenerating  power.  So  he  never  let  it 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  doing  a  good  deed.  If  he 
could  help  anybody  on  the  Sabbath-day  he  would  do 
it,  despite  the  prohibition  of  labor  on  that  day.  The 
appointed  feasts,  the  sacrifices,  the  oblations,  and  the 
ablutions  had  scant  recognition  from  him.  The  heart 
and  life  were  of  such  vastly  greater  importance  than 
these  formalities  as  to  take  all  the  emphasis  in  his 
utterances  (Matt.  23:2,  3  ;  7  :  21-25  ;  Luke  10  :  25- 
37).  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is,  from  end  to 
end,  a  compend  of  moral  and  religious  duty  in  which 
ritual  goes  for  next  to  nothing ;  a  statement  of  uni- 
versal principles,  rising  in  almost  every  paragraph 
above  distinctions  of  race,  finding  a  response  in  every 
heart  of  man. 

Jesus  put  a  new  and  exceeding  tenderness  into  the 
thought  of  God,  brought  Him  near  to  man,  made  Him 
a  benignant,  loving  Father,  hardly  addressing  Him  or 
referring  to  Him  by  any  other  than  that  endearing 
name.     He  not  only  uses  the  name,  he  insists  on  ap- 


344       ^^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

plying  its  significance,  following  out  the  parallelism 
with  human  parentage,  from  which  the  divine  differs 
only  as  the  Infinite  differs  from  the  finite  (Matt.  7  : 
9-1 1 ).  Very  rarely  indeed  is  God  called  by  this  name 
in  the  Old  Testament ;  very  rarely,  too,  in  the  books 
of  other  religions ;  its  well-nigh  exclusive  use  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  It  may  not  be 
scientific,  but  it  is  significant,  and  marks  the  greatest 
practical  modification  ever  made  in  the  idea  of  God. 
It  liberated  man  from  the  old  fancy  that  the  Power 
above  is  inimical,  needing  to  be  placated  with  offerings, 
a  dangerous  Power  into  whose  hands  one  may  fear  to 
fall. 

Jesus  taught  the  brotherhood  of  man,  giving  the 
idea  —  if  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  is  his  — 
extension  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Jewish  race.  He 
instituted  equality  on  a  basis  that  went  deeper  than 
equity,  and  graduated  duty  according  to  ability,  mak- 
ing it  obligatory  upon  the  strong  to  serve  the  weak, 
rating  the  merit  of  a  gift  by  its  proportion  to  the  giver's 
means,  —  the  widow's  mite  more  than  balancing  the 
contributions  of  the  rich,  because  it  was  all  her  living. 
He  reversed  the  whole  idea  of  rank  among  men,  in 
the  remarkable  saying  supported  by  a  double  tradition  : 
"  Ye  know  that  the  rulers  of  the  nations  lord  it  over 
them,  and  their  great  men  exercise  a  strict  authority 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       345 

over  them.  Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you ;  but  who- 
ever desireth  to  become  great  among  you  will  be  your 
servant ;  and  whoever  desireth  to  be  first  among  you 
will  be  your  bond-servant."  So  he  would  have  his 
disciples,  when  they  make  a  feast,  refrain  from  invit- 
ing their  friends  and  relatives  and  rich  neighbors,  and 
call  in  "the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  lame,  the  blind." 
With  him  the  obligation  of  service  was  commensurate 
with  resources.  The  motto,  noblesse  obligey  which 
holds  the  soul  of  chivalry,  was  coined  out  of  his  gold. 
He  went  further,  he  would  have  us  serve  not  only 
those  who  do  nothing  for  us,  but  those  even  who 
do  us  harm  ;  love  our  enemies,  and  bless  them  that 
curse  us.  It  is  unnecessary  here  to  ask  whether 
such  teaching  had  ever  been  heard  before,  enough 
to  say  that  it  was  new  in  Israel.  We  are  ready  to 
believe  that  some  of  the  better  informed  who  heard 
him  dropped  the  remark,  "  Never  man  spoke  like  this 
man." 

And  religion  in  the  gospel  presentation  lost  its 
sorrowful  tone,  put  off  its  look  of  gloom.  Though 
poor,  and  as  good  as  homeless,  Jesus  kept  a  cheerful 
heart,  was  never  so  abandoned  and  abused  but  that  he 
had  a  word  of  comfort  for  a  troubled  soul.  He  may 
have  sometimes  gone  hungry,  but  he  did  no  voluntary 
fasting,  and  required  none  of  his  disciples.     One  of 


34^        ^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

the  reproaches  hurled  at  him  by  the  stricter  sort  was 
that  he  wore  too  cheerful  a  countenance,  enjoyed  the 
good  things  of  life,  eating  and  drinking  like  other 
men.  His  first  public  utterance,  according  to  Mat- 
thew, opens  with  a  burst  of  felicitations,  a  proclama- 
tion of  blessedness,  of  happiness ;  and  to  the  end 
the  note  of  gladness  was  never  wholly  lost,  turning 
under  adversity  into  trustful  resignation.  Seldom  be- 
fore or  since  has  there  been  exemplified  a  piety  so 
natural,  so  free  from  eccentricities  and  exaggerations, 
as  that  of  the  little  circle  of  primitive  disciples  during 
the  lifetime  of  the  Master. 

The  sense  of  deathlessness  which,  in  Jesus,  was  of 
the  strongest,  coupled  with  the  threatening  attitude  of 
his  enemies,  their  evident  design  to  make  away  with 
him,  led  his  prophetic  spirit  into  vaticinations,  more  or 
less  vaguely  set  forth,  of  a  return  to  earth  which  he 
would  make  after  death,  when  there  would  be  a  de- 
finitive setting  up  of  the  kingdom  he  had  at  heart. 
The  shock  of  the  crucifixion  brought  these  utterances 
to  the  memory  of  the  disciples,  and  in  the  high  tension 
of  the  time  numerous  apparitions  of  their  lost  leader 
were  reported.  Resurrection  was  no  new  idea  to  the 
Jewish  mind ;  it  had  been  popularized  for  two  cent- 
uries (Dan.  12:2,  3) ;  in  the  book  of  Enoch  the  doc- 
trine  had    been    fully   elaborated.      The   apparently 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       347 

authentic  reports  of  the  reappearance  of  Jesus  after 
his  burial  afforded  ample  ground  for  the  affirmation 
that  the  doctrine  had,  in  his  person,  received  its  first 
and  most  significant  demonstration ;  and  thus  arose 
the  first  definite  addition  to  his  teaching.  As  is  apt 
to  be  the  case  with  a  supplementary  thought  which 
takes  fast  hold  upon  the  mind,  its  importance  was  dis- 
proportionately magnified,  so  as  largely  to  eclipse  the 
thing  supplemented.  "  Preaching  Christ "  became  in 
great  measure  the  preaching  of  the  resurrection. 
This  is  the  first  departure,  to  be  marked  in  Acts, 
from  the  method  and  the  topics  of  Jesus  in  the  synop- 
tic gospels.  The  Gospel  began  to  be  construed  as 
glad  tidings  of  possible  prospective  escape  from  the 
underworld.  Not  that  this  consideration  by  any  means 
exhausted  the  Gospel  as  declared  by  the  apostles  and 
their  associates ;  but  it  received  an  emphasis  that 
markedly  differentiated  their  preaching  from  the 
preaching  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  first  step  in  religious 
evolution  taken  by  the  Church  bereft  of  its  founder. 
The  whole  conception  of  the  life  beyond  was  gradually 
revolutionized.  The  pre-Christian  idea,  with  Jews  as 
with  pagans,  had  been  of  a  more  or  less  dismal  under- 
world to  which  good  and  bad  alike  went  at  death. 
Heaven  was  the  exclusive  abode  of  God  and  His 
angels.     But  the  new  teaching,  as  it  grew,  changed 


34^        'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

all  this.  Jesus,  it  came  to  be  said,  ascended  into 
heaven  and  took  a  seat  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 
there  to  receive  through  the  ages  to  come  all  the 
host  of  his  followers.  This  brighter  prospect  was 
hailed  as  an  immense  advance  upon  the  dreary  escha- 
tology  which  had  so  long  burdened  even  the  Greek 
world. 

Church  organization  followed,  first  of  a  simple  order, 
with  few  officers,  gradually  increasing  in  complexity 
till,  before  the  close  of  the  New  Testament  canon, 
besides  pastors  and  deacons,  there  were  teachers, 
elders,  presbyters,  bishops,  the  Church  fashioning 
itself  more  and  more  on  the  pattern  of  the  Roman 
civic  organization.  The  beginnings  of  this  process, 
which  went  on  in  a  most  natural  way,  may  be  seen 
(Acts  6  :  1-6)  in  the  choosing  of  seven  members  of 
the  church  in  Jerusalem  (then  the  only  church)  to 
relieve  the  apostles*  labors  by  looking  after  charity  and 
money  matters.  So  rudimentary  was  the  organization 
then  that  there  was  no  name  for  the  newly  selected 
officers.  Ninety  years  or  so  later,  when  the  epistle  to 
the  Philippians  came  to  be  written,  it  could  be  ad- 
dressed "  to  all  the  saints  in  Christ  Jesus  that  are  at 
Philippi,  with  the  bishops  and  deacons!'  Several  other 
of  the  later  epistles  indicate  the  existence  of  an  incip- 
ient hierarchy,  so  rapid  was  this  development. 


Religious  Evolution  in  New   Testament       349 

As  this  went  on  there  was  further  and  great  devel- 
opment of  doctrine.  Even  in  apostolic  days  the  prob- 
lem had  to  be  met  of  receiving  gentiles  into  the  Church, 
and,  when  they  were  admitted  without  first  becoming 
Jews,  the  way  was  opened  for  the  repudiation  of  the 
whole  Jewish  ceremonial  not  only  for  gentile  but  for 
Jewish  Christians  as  well.  This  fundamental  question 
was,  we  may  be  sure,  a  long  time  brewing,  and  was 
not  disposed  of  during  the  lifetime  of  the  apostles,  nor 
till  the  Jewish  constituency  in  the  Church  became  a 
minority  that  could  be  dealt  with  somewhat  authori- 
tatively, or  safely  ignored.  The  more  liberal  policy 
had  been  championed  by  Paul,  whether  initiated  by 
him  or  not,  and  his  followers  carried  it  through  in  his 
name,  working  at  the  same  time  other  and  more  pro- 
found modifications  of  the  Christian  faith.  With  the 
augmentation  of  gentile  elements  in  the  Church,  and 
the  ever  increasing  tendency  to  organize  in  the  manner 
of  the  Roman  State,  came  an  application  of  Greek  and 
Roman  thought  to  the  Jewish  fundamentals  of  the 
Gospel,  with  thoroughgoing  and  far-reaching  effects. 
The  doctrine  of  propitiation  by  a  bloody  sacrifice,  com- 
mon to  all  ancient  peoples,  afforded  a  basis  on  which 
to  unite  Jew  and  gentile.  The  violent  death  of  Jesus, 
who  was  more  than  Jew,  who  came  to  be  considered 
*'  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  first-born  of  the 


350        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

whole  creation,"  was  proclaimed  the  supreme  offering 
for  the  sins  of  the  world,  by  virtue  of  which  atonement 
was  made  once  for  all,  and  salvation  secured  for  every 
believing  soul.  That  offering  made  an  end  of  the  old 
Law,  of  the  old  order  of  sacrifice ;  no  more  need  of 
temples  and  altars  and  priests  making  propitiation 
through  the  blood  of  goats  and  calves,  for  all  that  work 
had  been  accomplished  "  through  the  offering  of  the 
body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all." 

At  the  same  time  the  doctrine  of  sin  was  developed 
with  more  than  Jewish  rigor.  The  blight  came,  accord- 
ing to  the  Pauline  teaching  (second  century),  through 
the  disobedience  of  the  first  man,  and  so  passed  upon 
all  men,  bringing  them  under  the  curse  of  the  divine 
Law  and  subject  to  eternal  death.  From  this  the 
only  possible  escape  is  through  faith  in  Christ  and  in 
the  efficacy  of  his  atoning  blood.  The  inherited  guilt 
is  too  deep  to  be  washed  away  in  any  tears  of  pen- 
itence, too  grave  to  be  counterbalanced  by  any  possible 
good  works.  Nothing  avails  but  reliance  on  the  merits 
of  the  crucified  one.  Every  man's  salvation  is  in  his 
own  hands,  and  is  attainable  through  grateful  ac- 
ceptance of  the  proffered  terms,  and  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  paid  a  ransom  potentially 
adequate  for  the  redemption  of  all,  and  made  individ- 
ually applicable  by  spiritual  self-surrender.     In  verifi- 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       351 

cation  of  the  genuineness  of  this  act  the  subject  will 
thereafter  walk  in  newness  of  life. 

The  opportunity  of  universal  salvation,  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  offer  not  being  universally  accepted,  led 
directly  to  the  development  of  the  doctrine  that  cer- 
tain souls  are  predestined  from  the  beginning  to  salva- 
tion, foreordained  to  repent  and  believe.  Every  good 
thing  is  from  God,  even  to  the  most  private  personal 
impulse  to  be  good.  "  Whom  he  foreknew  he  also 
foreordained  to  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  his  Son ; 
and  whom  he  foreordained,  them  he  also  called ;  and 
whom  he  called,  them  he  also  justified  ;  and  whom  he 
justified,  them  he  also  glorified."  The  reconciliation 
of  this  with  the  doctrine  of  free  will,  on  which  the  very 
appeal  of  the  preacher  must  rest,  became  the  occasion 
for  interminable  polemics.  But  in  the  highest  think- 
ing perfect  rationality  is  not  to  be  looked  for ;  all 
our  thoughts  on  infinite  things  end  at  last  in  contra- 
diction ;  and  from  these  difficulties  one  can  always 
honorably  retreat  under  cover  of  the  saying,  "  Great 
is  the  mystery  of  godliness."  This  fact  should  only 
lead  us  to  approach  the  great  mysteries  with  diffi- 
dence. 

Theories  of  the  resurrection  and  of  the  life  beyond 
were  also  further  unfolded  by  the  Paulinists  in  the 
first  half  of  the  second  century.     A  variety  of  views 


352        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

are  presented  in  the  several  Pauline  epistles,  which 
under  the  old  theory  of  their  authorship  were  supposed 
to  mark  the  growth  of  the  subject  in  the  apostle's 
mind,  but  which  are  now  better  explained  by  taking 
these  writings  as  the  work  of  a  number  of  different 
persons,  having  only  a  general  affiliation  as  of  the 
school  of  Paul,  and,  like  other  pupils,  going  far  beyond 
their  teacher.  On  a  subject  so  highly  speculative  it 
is  to  be  expected  that  different  writers  would  present 
widely  different  conceptions,  and  such  in  fact  is  the 
case.  In  Thessalonians  only  the  righteous  dead  are 
raised,  but  the  representation  of  this  is  very  graph- 
ically set  forth.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  taken 
as  a  pledge  that  "  them  also  that  are  fallen  asleep  in 
Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him."  The  writer  then 
goes  on  to  describe  the  great  event  when  "  the  Lord 
himself  will  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with 
the  voice  of  an  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God," 
whereupon  the  first  thing  to  take  place  is  the  coming 
forth  of  the  Christian  dead  from  their  graves.  Then 
the  living  Christians  are  to  be  "  caught  up  in  clouds 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air."  Nothing  is  said  of  any 
resurrection  of  the  unconverted.  Nevertheless,  this 
is  a  much  more  definite  statement  than  is  to  be  met 
with  in  the  gospels.  Other  epistles  (L  Cor.  15  :  35- 
49 ;  IL  Cor.  5  :  1-8)  have  it  that  the  souls  of  believers 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       353 

pass  immediately  after  death  into  the  heavenly  state. 
Philippians,  Colossians,  and  Ephesians  show  yet  fur- 
ther development  of  the  Pauline  eschatology,  particu- 
larly in  exalting  the  office  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the 
great  scenes  to  be  finally  unrolled. 

A  very  marked  advance  is  disclosed  in  the  epistles 
in  respect  of  demonology.  While  accounts  of  pos- 
sessions and  exorcisms  abound  in  the  synoptic  gospels 
and  in  the  record  of  apostolic  times,  they  are  nearly 
banished  from  the  later  Fourth  Gospel,  and  the  epistles 
(also,  as  we  suppose,  works  of  the  second  century)  are 
silent  on  these  subjects.  From  the  fact  that  outside 
the  Christian  Church  demonology  held  its  own  through 
all  that  period,  this  is  a  feature  the  more  notable,  show- 
ing, in  the  leaders  of  the  Church  from  whom  these 
writings  proceeded,  a  decided  superiority  to  their  time. 
Indeed,  so  far  advanced  were  they  in  their  thought 
that  they  have  furnished  to  this  day  the  doctrinal  basis 
for  almost  all  orders  of  Christians,  from  which  they 
have  a  modernity  in  striking  contrast  with  much  of 
the  gospel  narrative  and  of  Acts. 

Compared  with  the  Pauline  writings,  the  Johannine 
connote  a  religious  development  less  rigidly  doctrinal, 
less  dependent  on  ratiocination,  more  spiritual,  more 
mystical.  They  show  less  of  the  Roman,  more  of  the 
Greek  influence.    While  they  are  the  index  of  a  trans- 


354        ^-^^  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

formation  of  the  original  gospel  equally  sweeping  in 
another  direction,  they  have,  from  their  more  fervid 
tone,  always  seemed  to  enshrine  more  of  the  spirit  of 
Jesus.  The  principal  of  these  writings,  being  a  gospel, 
could  hardly  fail  to  do  this  ;  but,  as  hereinbefore  ob- 
served, it  is  a  gospel  which  is  made  the  vehicle  of 
second-century  ideas  and  sentiments.  Setting  out 
with  a  Christology  more  advanced  even  than  the 
Pauline,  and  designed  to  obviate  all  anti- Jewish  prej- 
udices against  the  new  faith  by  raising  its  founder  to 
supramundane  rank  as  the  eternally  existing  Word 
mysteriously  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  men,  — 
yet  never  showing  the  first  trace  of  a  Jew  in  mind 
or  in  feature,  and  offering  salvation  to  men  of  all 
races  without  discrimination,  —  it  makes  Jesus  (con- 
scious from  the  first  of  his  Messianic  mission) 
speak  with  an  unquestionable,  though  benignant  au- 
thority, voicing  the  exalted,  tender,  mystical  concep- 
tions of  the  writer  and  his  school ;  conceptions  the 
germ  of  which  was  doubtless  often  some  actual  remem- 
bered word  of  Jesus,  but  the  expansion  the  writer's 
own.  This  gospel  presents  the  thought  of  Jesus  de- 
veloped through  the  ponderings  of  a  truly  religious  and 
highly  gifted  soul,  writing  under  greatly  changed  con- 
ditions and  for  cultivated,  philosophical  readers.  The 
writer  of  this  gospel,  —  best  considered  as  a  weighty 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       355 

historical  romance,  —  who  probably  wrote  also  the  first 
epistle  of  John,  sought  in  both  to  make  Christianity 
acceptable  to  the  Greek  mind,  which  was  an  indis- 
pensable preliminary  to  its  becoming  a  world-religion  ; 
and  this  he  did  by  setting  forth  an  ideal  Christ,  with 
a  profound  restatement  of  the  Christian  teaching. 
His  transformations  were  effected  by  omissions  from 
the  more  primitive  gospel,  by  great  extensions,  and  by 
treatment  from  a  fresh  point  of  view.  The  omissions 
were  of  such  incidents  and  expressions  as  he  felt  to  be 
derogatory  to  the  exalted,  godlike  character  which  the 
Christ  had  taken  on  in  his  mind,  or  such  as  were  not 
likely  to  commend  themselves  to  the  cultured  world 
he  wished  to  reach,  —  admissions  of  weakness  or  finite- 
ness  on  the  part  of  Jesus,  stories  of  the  devil  tempt- 
ing him,  and  of  the  casting  out  of  demons.  New  doc- 
trinal statements  of  the  very  highest  order  appear  in 
gospel  and  epistle.  "  The  idea  of  God  is  apprehended 
with  a  depth  that  is  nowhere  approached  elsewhere  in 
the  New  Testament.  A  philosopher  may  dispute  the 
propositions  both  that  God  is  spirit  and  that  God  is 
love,  but  he  cannot  surpass  them  in  simplicity  of  sci- 
entific expression.  The  first  basis  of  the  religious 
life,  the  feeling  of  dependence,  cannot  be  expressed 
with  greater  depth  than  in  the  gospel  (3  :  27),  the 
essence  of  sin  with  greater  depth  than  in  the  epistle 


356       'The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

(I  :  8,  10;  2:  9)"  (Schmiedel).  The  fundamental 
idea  of  this  gospel  is  in  the  expression  found  nowhere 
else  :  "  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye 
love  one  another ;  even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye 
also  love  one  another  "  ;  —  an  idea  which  in  one  form 
and  another  repeats  itself  over  and  over  in  gospel  and 
epistle. 

Thus  it  is  easy  to  point  out  features  in  the  trans- 
formed Gospel  which  are  of  great  and  permanent 
value ;  yet,  from  the  fact  that  at  some  points  it  presents 
a  higher  development  of  Christianity,  we  must  not 
infer  that  upon  the  whole  we  have  here  an  advance 
upon  the  more  primitive  Gospel  set  forth  in  the  actual 
words  of  Jesus.  A  writing  made  to  meet  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  second  century,  however  important  the 
work  it  did  then,  however  serviceable  in  parts  it  may 
since  have  been,  cannot  be  expected,  as  a  whole,  to 
meet  the  very  different  exigencies  of  the  twentieth 
century.  There  is  no  longer  occasion  to  veil  the 
Jewish  origin  of  Jesus,  or  to  take  him  out  of  the 
bounds  of  our  common  humanity  by  resort  to  the 
Logos  doctrine  of  Philo  and  the  old  Greeks.  We 
have  learned  that  what  is  most  human  is,  and  is 
for  that  reason,  most  divine ;  and  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  Jewish  race  in  ancient  days  shows  conclusively 
that  most  fittingly,  most  naturally,  from  that  race 


Religious  Evolution  in  New  Testament       357 

came  the  supreme  religious  leader  of  mankind.  More- 
over we  are  the  more  drawn  to  Jesus  by  the  signs  that 
he  partook  of  our  infirmities  —  signs  frankly  dropped 
here  and  there  by  the  synoptists.  Even  their  plain 
showing  that  he  held  to  some  of  the  prevailing  de- 
lusions of  his  time  does  not  offend  us.  We  are 
offended,  rather,  by  that  scrupulous  distortion  of  his- 
tory by  which  he  is  made  to  appear  superior  to  every 
limitation  of  time  and  place. 

The  two  great  movements  in  the  early  Church  of 
which  we  have  the  conspicuous  evidences  in  the  New 
Testament,  —  movements  called  after  Paul  and  John, 
though  but  remotely  connected  with  those  apostles,  — 
are  the  first  marked  features  in  the  evolution  after 
Jesus  of  historical  Christianity.  Each  had  a  distinct- 
ive value  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed ;  each  was  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  equipment  with  which  the  Church 
could  enter  the  lists  with  hope  of  the  conquest  of  the 
world,  but  both,  in  so  far  as  they  threw  into  the  back- 
ground the  actual,  historical  figure  of  Jesus  himself, 
or  obscured  him  with  a  mystical,  ideal  representation, 
did  a  work  which  in  these  later  times  cannot  be  re- 
garded with  entire  satisfaction.  Like  many  a  subse- 
quent evolution  in  the  Church,  they  have  the  drawback 
of  suiting  themselves  to  local  and  temporary  emergen- 
cies, from  which  not  all  the  universal  and  abiding 


35^        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

elements  they  contain  can  wholly  rescue  them.  In 
our  day  there  is  notably  springing  up  a  desire  to  return 
to  the  real  Jesus,  to  strip  away  all  veils  of  Pauline 
dialectics  and  Johannine  mysticism,  and  from  the  most 
primitive  records  to  draw  the  inspiration  of  his  very 
words,  the  kindling  touch  of  a  life  actually  lived  among 
men.  The  new  cult  of  Jesus  makes  one  genuine 
word  of  his  outvalue  volumes  that  men  have  written 
about  him. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 
The  New  Testament  Canon. 

ANY  adequate  account  of  the  formation  of  the 
New  Testament  canon  is  not  possible  within 
the  limits  of  the  present  volume.  Besides,  it 
would  involve  a  discussion  of  apocryphal  books  and 
writings  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers  unfamiliar  and 
forbidding  to  the  general  reader.  Exhaustive  treatises 
on  the  subject  are  within  easy  reach  of  students.* 
Only  the  merest  glance,  therefore,  need  here  be  taken 
of  the  process  by  which  certain  of  the  early  Christian 
writings  came  to  be  reckoned  Sacred  Literature. 

Wherever  the  word  "scripture"  occurs  in  the  New 
Testament  the  reference  is  to  the  Old  Testament, 
save  only  that  the  Pauline  epistles  are  mentioned  in 
II.  Peter  3  :  16  in  connection  with  "other  scriptures.'* 
The  date  of  II.  Peter  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  believed 
to  be  the  last-written  book  of  the  Bible,  and  to  be 
later  than  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  as  late 


*  For  a  very  complete  and  candid  statement  of  the  whole  matter 
see  chap.  II.  of  "Gospel  Criticism  and  Historical  Christianity,"  by 
the  late  Orello  Cone,  D.  D. 


360       The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

probably  as  175.  While,  previous  to  that  time,  no 
one  ventured  to  class  a  Christian  writing  along  with 
the  Jewish  Scriptures,  as  of  equal  sanctity,  there  was 
doubtless,  from  the  first  appearance  of  the  gospels,  a 
measure  of  reverence  shown  for  them  on  account  of 
their  containing  the  words  of  Jesus.  There  were, 
however,  many  of  these  gospels,  and  not  all  were  re- 
ceived with  equal  veneration.  An  informal  process  of 
selection  went  on,  and  the  narratives  believed  to  be 
the  most  authentic  received  the  preference.  In  this 
way  our  three  synoptics  came  eventually  to  be  recog- 
nized as  the  authorized  records  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 
These,  being  read  in  the  churches  side  by  side  with 
the  Old  Testament  scriptures,  tended  gradually  to 
take  on  a  like  sanctity.  Justin  Martyr,  writing  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  gives  evidence  that 
the  process  was  then  at  this  stage ;  the  gospels  were 
used  in  the  churches,  but  their  inspiration  was  not 
affirmed;  they  had  not  yet  attained  to  the  rank  of 
sacred  scripture.  The  epistles,  all  later  writings  than 
the  first  two  gospels,  were  not  so  early  "  sanctified  by 
time/'  but  what  they  lacked  in  age  was  made  up  by 
their  character  of  circular  letters,  which  led  to  their 
more  frequent  reading.  The  Apocalypse  of  John  was 
also  in  the  form  of  an  address  to  the  churches,  and, 
on  account  of  its  prophetic  character  and  its  assump- 


T^he  New  Testament  Canon  361 

tion  of  divine  inspiration,  early  acquired  a  quasi-sacred 
standing,  at  least  with  the  Jewish  Christians  who  har- 
bored a  strong  enmity  for  the  Roman  empire.  The 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  when  the  apostles  had  become 
only  a  memory,  readily  took  on  a  certain  sanctity,  just 
as  did  the  epistles  written  in  their  names  and  accepted 
as  theirs  by  an  uncritical  age.  By  the  testimony  of 
Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  and  Clement,  a  Christian  canon 
was  formed  before  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
though  the  precise  limits  were  not  fixed,  and  books 
were  received  in  some  localities  which  were  not  ad- 
mitted in  others.  The  parts  of  our  New  Testament, 
some  of  which  were  omitted  from  the  sacred  collection 
made  in  one  and  another  quarter,  and  which  thus  were 
brought  under  some  question  as  to  genuineness,  are : 
Hebrews,  James,  I.  and  II.  Peter,  II.  and  III.  John, 
Jude,  and  the  Apocalypse  ;  and  their  questionable 
authenticity  has  given  them  the  last  places  in  the 
canonical  collection.  On  the  other  hand,  books  were 
here  and  there  admitted  to  the  canon  in  the  early 
centuries  which  have  since  been  excluded.  Among 
these  are :  I.  and  II.  Clement,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas, 
the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  the  Gospel  according  to  the 
Hebrews,  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter,  and  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  Peter.  Of  some  of  these  writings  only 
fragments  now  remain.    As  far  as  the  gospels  are  con- 


362        T'he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

cerned,  the  canonicity  of  our  four  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  others  was  fairly  settled  upon  early  in  the  third 
century,  though,  to  the  middle,  Origen,  and  with  him 
doubtless  his  contemporaries,  wavered  as  to  certain 
epistles.  According  to  his  statement  there  were  cer- 
tain documents  which,  being  universally  regarded  in  the 
Church  as  Holy  Scripture,  are  to  be  unquestioningly 
received  as  such.  These  he  elevated  into  a  class  by 
themselves  as  of  undoubted  inspiration.  Other  writ- 
ings, accepted  by  some  churches  and  rejected  by 
others,  he  relegated  to  a  second  class  as  of  possible  or 
doubtful  inspiration.  By  the  end  of  the  third  century 
a  substantial  agreement  was  reached,  though  the  epis- 
tles of  Clement  held  their  place  in  some  bibles  two 
hundred  years  longer. 

In  the  selection  of  writings  for  admission  to  the 
canon  the  judgment  of  the  Church  was  better  than 
the  main  ground  of  that  judgment,  if,  as  Davidson 
said,  "  the  choice  was  determined  by  various  circum- 
stances, of  which  apostolic  origin  was  the  chief," — 
it  now  appearing  extremely  doubtful  that  any  part  of 
the  New  Testament  is  from  the  hand  of  an  apostle. 
To  really  appreciate  the  wise  discrimination  shown  it 
needs  to  read  some  of  the  uncanonical  Christian  pro- 
ductions that  have  come  down  from  that  period.  The 
choice  was  wise,  but  it  could  not  have  been  difficult. 


CONCLUSION. 


WE  have  now  traced,  as  far  as  may  be  done 
within  the  limits  of  this  work,  the  evolution 
of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  scriptures.  The 
process,  in  its  beginnings  obscure  and  indeterminate, 
is  well  in  view  for  a  period  of  more  than  nine  hundred 
years.  From  first  to  last  these  writings  register  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  Jewish  people,  bringing 
us  down  into  the  time  of  their  final  dispersion  over 


the  W6rld.     It  IS  the  Jewish  religious  genius  that  pre- 


dominates in  them,  but  this  has  obviously  been  influ- 
enced by  one  and  another  of  the  great  forces  which 
have  swayed  the  world  :  first  byJEgypt  in  the  dim 
beginnings  of  the  national  existence  ;  then  by  Babylon 
through  a  long  period,  drawing  thence  many  a  law  and 
legend,  rite  and  custom ;  then  for  two  centuries  touched 
by^ersian  thought,  imbibing  something  of  the  dualism 
of  Zarathustra,  taking  from  him  the  happy  impulse  to 
psalmody  ;  upon  Alexander's  conquest  of  Asia  coming 
under  the  spell  of  Greek  thought,  and  greatly  affected 


364        T^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

by  final  contact  and  collision  with  Rome.  All  these 
influences  had  to  do  with  the  making  of  the  Bible, 
while  yet  the  fundamental  conceptions  remained  Jew- 
ish. The  strong  national  exclusiveness  estopped  any 
sweeping  foreign  tendency,  and  kept  clear  certain  of 
the  ancient  characteristic  strains. 

As  has  often  been  pointed  out,  evolutionary  move- 
ments do  not  take  a  straight  upward  course,  but  pro- 
ceed on  undulatory  lines,  now  rising,  now  falling,  like 
the  waves  of  the  sea.  So,  while  from  the  earliest 
written  word  of  our  scriptures  to  the  word  of  Jesus 
there  is,  on  the  whole,  progress,  the  several  steps  are 
not  all  upward.  No  question  arises  as  to  the  work  of 
the  first  prophets  being  reformatory,  rough  as  it  was ; 
and  the  great  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  led 
thought  and  worship  to  wonderful  heights;  but  so 
much  cannot  be  said  of  the  priestly  influence  which 
afterwards  rose  to  supremacy,  setting  up  a  rigid  cere- 
monial which  it  took  the  whole  force  of  the  Pauline 
party  in  the  second  Christian  century  to  break  down. 
There  was  engendered  by  it  a  barren  formalism,  ob- 
structive to  the  last  degree  to  every  reformatory  move- 
ment, a  formalism  against  which  John  the  Baptist, 
Jesus,  Stephen,  and  others  beat  out  their  lives.  Some- 
thing may  doubtless  be  said  for  the  priests  and  their 
Law.     They  did  for  the  time  a  service  which  seemed 


Conclusion  365 

to  be  needed ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  what  they  did 
had  to  be  done  away.  It  pertained  to  the  temporalities 
and  not  to  the  eternities.  It  was  on  the  downward 
curl  of  the  undulating  billow  of  progress,  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  onward  motion  of  the  wave.  Hence 
the  setting  aside  in  Christian  reckoning,  as  null  and 
void,  of  the  whole  mass  of  Jewish  ceremonial  which 
makes  up  so  considerable  a  part  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

This  summary  proceeding,  which  was  necessitated 
in  the  process  of  transferring  Christianity  to  the  non- 
Jewish  world,  naturally  led,  soon  or  late,  to  further 
free  handling  of  the  Jewish  scriptures,  to  the  pointing 
out  of  the  unworthiness  of  a  book  like  Esther  to  be 
greatly  revered,  to  marking  with  protest  as  unworthy 
of  a  book  of  religion  the  disheartening  character  of 
certain  statements  in  Ecclesiastes.  Other  parts  be- 
sides the  ceremonial  Law  are  found  to  be  uninspiring, 
retrogressive,  proper  to  be  set  aside  in  the  onward 
movement  of  thought  and  feeling.  Thus  canonical 
writings  of  the  fourth  and  second  centuries  b.  c.  are  in 
some  cases  found  to  be  far  inferior  to  writings  of  the 
eighth  century,  showing  that  progress  was  not  contin- 
uous and  uniform.  While  the  general  movement  of 
thought  was  upward,  there  were  moments  of  marked 
decline.     That  religion,  however,  more  than  held  its 


;^66        The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

own  through  the  later  centuries  is  amply  shown  by 
the  best  of  the  Psalms,  by  the  book  of  Job,  and  by  the 
high  spirituality  of  some  of  the  later  prophets. 

The  course  of  evolution  in  the  New  Testament 
presents  a  somewhat  different  problem.  There  the 
more  thoughtful  writers  come  last,  the  synoptic  gospels 
depending  for  their  value  almost  wholly  on  the  report 
they  make  of  Jesus'  sayings  and  doings.  In  their 
knowledge  of  the  world  and  of  the  world's  thought, 
and  in  their  power  of  statement,  the  writers  of  these 
gospels  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  men  of  the 
second  century  who  produced  the  Pauline  and  the 
Johannine  literature.  Yet  we  may  well  question  that 
religion  on  the  whole  was  advanced  by  these  latter 
beyond  the  point  where  Jesus  left  it.  Beyond  a  doubt, 
the  Gospel,  by  the  transformation,  was  made  more  ac- 
ceptable to  Greeks  and  Romans,  its  triumph  in  that 
age  rendered  possible;  but  judged  absolutely,  judged 
by  the  needs  of  the  modern  world,  was  it  improved  ? 

To  begin  with,  its  simplicity  was  sacrificed  ;  for, 
simple  as  the  language  of  the  Johannine  writings  is, 
their  thought  is  not  simple,  and  the  Pauline  are  simple 
neither  in  style  nor  in  substance.  Both  are  burdened 
with  an  enormous  weight  of  dogma  —  subject  of 
interminable  discussion  —  of  which  there  is  in  the 
Jesus  of  the  synoptists  slight  intimation.      To  the 


Conclusion  367 

modern  mind,  they  have  at  many  points  the  quahty  of 
inciting  doubt  or  arousing  protest ;  whereas  a  marked 
characteristic  of  Jesus  is  that  he  commands  instant 
acquiescence.  We  marvel  at  his  power  of  speaking 
our  own  feeUngs,  aspirations,  longings,  of  revealing  us 
to  ourselves.  Then,  the  philosophy  of  the  second 
century,  and  the  problems  on  wliich  it  was  turned,  are 
alike  strange  to  the  thought  of  the  present  day ;  they 
are  passed  away  as  completely  as  was  the  Jewish 
ceremonial  for  non-Jewish  converts  when  Christianity 
knocked  at  the  gates  of  Rome.  The  writings  subse- 
quent to  the  synoptic  gospels  show  a  great  develop- 
ment of  doctrine ;  but  in  religion,  what  do  they  more 
than  to  elaborate,  and  that  not  always  without  distor- 
tion, what  is  given  in  the  gospels } 

We  therefore  conclude  that  the  culminating  point 
of  religious  development  for  the  long  period  covered 
by  our  scriptures  is  in  the  Gospel  and  the  person  of 
Jesus  ;  that  the  after  evolution  registered  in  the  New 
Testament,  while  having  great  historical,  ethical,  and 
doctrinal  significance,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  higher 
form  of  Christianity,  but  as  an  adaptation  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  the  time,  a  phase  inferior  to  that  set  forth 
in  the  first  gospels.  And  this  accords  with  the  obvious 
desire  of  the  best  minds  of  our  time  to  go  back,  from 
epistles  and  apocalypse  and  mystic  gospel  written  with 


368        J^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

a  dogmatic  purpose,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  Master 
himself,  the  preacher  whose  words  have  the  quality  of 
provoking  no  protest. 

It  cannot  but  be  that  a  consideration  such  as  has 
here  been  made  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  our 
scriptures  will  have  a  decisive  bearing  on  the  estimate 
to  be  placed  on  them.  The  old  notion,  if  one  has  en- 
tertained it,  that  these  writings  were  miraculously 
communicated  to  the  Jews,  becomes  thoroughly  under- 
mined, and  their  dictatorial  authority  vanishes.  By 
this  change  of  view  the  Bible  itself  is  not  changed, 
but  the  student,  in  laying  aside  the  magnifying  glass 
of  an  excessive  reverence,  is  differently  impressed  by 
it.  "Those  whose  minds  are  not  shut  up  by  an  undis- 
criminating  reverence,  —  those  to  whom  it  has  become 
a  necessity  to  think  and  feel  as  they  read,  —  must 
surely  own  their  disappointment  that  the  divine  gleams 
which  kindle  them  [in  the  Bible's  pages]  are  so  sparse 
and  transient,  and  so  soon  quenched  by  the  mists  of 
an  obsolete  world  and  the  dust  of  its  crumbled  con- 
troversies. There  are  few  more  pathetic  experiences 
than  that  of  the  young  enthusiast,  whose  devotion  has 
consecrated  every  page  of  scripture,  but  whose  intellect 
wakes  to  read  it  critically  at  last,  and  who  has  to  reduce 
his  prophecies  into  history,  —  to  find  the  drama  of  the 
parables  played  out  long  ago  in  Galilee  and  Jerusalem  ; 


Conclusion  369 

to  discover  that  the  Last  Judgment,  which  art  and 
poetry  have  solemnized  in  vain,  is  the  lost  dream  of  a 
world  that  has  outlived  its  end ;  —  and  whose  sacred 
thirst,  increased  with  the  fever  of  disappointment,  has 
to  retreat  to  fountains  ever  narrowing,  till  he  has 
drunk  so  often  of  the  beatitudes,  the  parting  dis- 
courses, and  the  remaining  dews  of  scattered  sweet- 
ness here  and  there,  that  he  goes  for  a  draught  of 
fuller  refreshment  to  a  Kempis  or  Tauler."* 

Pathetic,  yes  ;  but  the  gain  of  enlightenment  always 
exceeds  the  sentimental  loss  —  dwarfs  it  out  of  sight. 
And,  let  us  make  bold  to  say,  where  the  ancient  script- 
ure palls  upon  us  we  need  not  hark  back  even  to  Tauler 
or  k  Kempis  ;  we  may  be  drawn  rather  to  gifted  spirits 
of  our  own  time,  men  and  women  who  have  been  the 
manifestation  of  God  to  us ;  for  we  too  can  speak  at 
first  hand  of  **  that  which  was  from  the  beginning,  that 
which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with 
our  eyes,  that  which  we  have  beheld  and  our  hands 
have  handled  of  the  Word  of  life." 

The  Bible  is  what  it  is,  and  no  theory  of  a  super- 
natural origin  for  it  can  in  the  least  change  it  object- 
ively, any  more  than  a  fancy  that  the  Venus  of  Milo 
was  chiseled  in  heaven  and  thence  passed  down  to 


*  Martineau. 


370       "^he  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature 

earth  could  affect  the  aesthetic  worth  of  the  statue. 
The  Bible  itself  is  precisely  the  same  thing  whether 
considered  the  work  of  men  or  of  supernal  powers. 
The  theory  of  origin  gives  no  real  ground  for  passing 
judgment  on  the  work,  but  it  does  give  ground  for 
passing  judgment  on  the  authors.  If  men  out  of 
their  own  minds  and  hearts  wrote  all  that  is  therein 
contained,  we  cannot  withhold  from  them  our  rev- 
erence for  the  heights  they  attained ;  while  if  a  Being 
or  beings  infinitely  superior  did  it,  we  cannot  say 
as  much.  If  men  did  it  simply  as  amanuenses  re- 
sponding to  a  controlhng  Power  beyond  themselves, 
our  esteem  for  them  need  not  be  great.  It  is  said  by 
those  who  profess  to  be  wise  in  such  matters  that  a 
mere  nobody  may  be  the  medium  through  which  the 
spirit  of  Shakespeare  or  of  Plato  will  speak ;  so  the 
merely  mechanical  medium  of  the  Eternal  would  call 
for  no  special  reverence.  Our  respect  for  the  Bible 
writers  rises  in  the  degree  that  we  attribute  to  them- 
selves what  they  wrote. 

Critical  studies  do  not  change  the  Bible  in  itself, 
they  change  our  historical  and  subjective  conception 
of  it ;  and  not  in  a  way  to  involve  any  such  loss  as 
the  timid  conservative  is  apt  to  think.  After  the 
most  searching  studies,  all  precious  things  are  there 
that  ever  were  there  —  high  thoughts  about  God,  the 


Conclusion  371 

clear  voice  of  conscience,  the  vision  of  human  brother- 
hood, the  exaltation  of  spiritual  above  material  values, 
—  all  are  there  as  before,  however  accompanied  by  the 
errors  and  misconceptions  of  early  human  experience. 
Our  only  loss  is  that  of  an  ancient  and  imposing  delu- 
sion as  to  how  the  teachings  came  there.  The  gain  is 
LIBERTY,  —  liberty  to  choose,  and  to  follow  the  good  ; 
deliverance  from  the  dominating  authority  of  what  has 
been  called  the  "  written  Word,"  but  which  under  crit- 
ical examination  proves  to  be  an  aggregation  of  litera- 
ture in  the  nature  of  the  case  without  unity ;  reaching 
at  points  to  heights  nowhere  else  attained,  but  in  the 
mass  heterogeneous,  contradictory,  impossible  in  many 
parts  to  follow ;  —  and  the  committal  of  the  soul  to  the 
guidance  of  the  free  Spirit,  out  of  which  have  come 
all  bibles,  all  holiest  thoughts,  all  highest  things. 


INDEX. 


Aaron,  sons  of,  99. 

Abbott,  viii. 

Abraham,  21,  264. 

Acts,  by  author  of  Third  Gospel, 
271 ;  sources  of,  272,  273;  di- 
gest of,  274-290;  conflict  with 
epistles,  291  ;  legendary  char- 
acter of  large  portions,  275, 
276,  280-283,  288. 

Adventists,  236. 

Agag,  45. 

Ahab,  67. 

Ahaz,  sacrifices  his  child  to  Mo- 
lech,  70. 

Ahijah,  63. 

Alexander  the  Great,  134. 

Amos,  30,  52,  54,  192,  210;  call 
to  prophesy,  74 ;  first  Hebrew 
to  leave  to  us  a  writing  attested 
as  his  own,  75. 

Ananias,  275. 

Antiochus  Epiphanes,  173,  176, 
177. 

Antiquity,  veneration  for,  60,  218, 
222,  223. 

Apocalypse,  320-324 ;  author  of, 
320;  interpretations  of,  321; 
St  covert  assault  on  imperial. 


Rome,  322,  323,  361 ;  remark- 
ably successful  prophecy,  324. 

Apocalypse  of  Peter,  361 . 

Apocrypha,  180-185. 

Apostles,  little  known  of,  272 ; 
ordinary  men,  273 ;  not  liter- 
ary, 231,  256. 

Apostolic  Fathers,  why  they  seem 
inferior,  302,  303. 

Ark  of  the  covenant,  44. 

Aristarchus,  287. 

Artaxerxes,  117,  178. 

Ashera,  73. 

Assumption  of  Moses,  185. 

Assyria  a  peril  to  Israel,  49. 

Atonement,  doctrine  of,  349. 

Authorities  herein  drawn  upon, 
viii,  ix  (Preface). 

Baal,  52,  69. 

Babylon,  center  of  eastern  civil- 
ization, 31  ;  source  of  the  more 
ancient  Hebrew  history,  33; 
creation  and  flood  myths  of,  34 ; 
the  Sabbath  in,  36 ;  medical  art 
of,  37  ;  a  prescription  from,  38 ; 
priests  administered  law,  36; 
literary  influence  on  early  Is- 


374 


Index 


rael,  io6 ;  religious  influence, 
36,  363 ;  respect  for,  97. 

Barchochba,  337. 

Barjesus,  281,  282. 

Barnabas,  279-281, 284, 286;  epis- 
tle of,  361. 

Baruch,  92;  book  of,  135. 

Baur,  296. 

Bel  and  the  Dragon,  184. 

Belshazzar,  178. 

Bible,  what  is  it  ?  14;  first  accept- 
ance of  in  Europe  nominal,  17  ; 
positive  value  of,  18;  effect  of 
excessive  claims  for,  20 ;  forced 
interpretations  of,  22 ;  oldest 
parts  of,  30;  an  evolution,  not 
a  miraculous  literature,  53 ; 
how  affected  by  criticism,  368- 

Boaz,  129. 

Bousset,  viii,  322. 

Budde,  viii,  213,  220. 

Bull-worship,  61,  94;  not  inter- 
fered with  by  the  earliest 
prophets,  64. 

Canon,  O.  T.,  Jewish  arrange- 
ment of,  209 ;  principle  of  for- 
mation, 218, 225;  tripartite,  1 80 
note^  212-222;  first,  212;  sec- 
ond, 214-216;  third,  216-220; 
not  fixed  in  deliberative  assem- 
bly, 220;  rank  in,  221,  222; 
dates  of,  2 1 2, 2 1 6, 22 1 ;  Samar- 
itan, 212;  N.  T.,  359-362. 

Canticles,  171,  172;  canonization 
of,  2 19 ;  not  referred  to  in  N.T., 
221. 

Carpenter,  viii. 


Charles,  viii. 

Chemosh,  69,  71,  73. 

Cheyne,  iii,viii,  32, 62, 83, 152, 243 

note. 
Chronicles,  135-138,  220. 
Church,    organization    of,    308, 

3ii»348. 
Clement,  310,  361,  362. 
Colossians,  296,  308. 
Corinthians,  296,  300-302,  309. 
Cone,  Dr.  Orello,  viii,  268  note ; 

359  note. 
Confucius,  23. 
Constant,  Benj.,  iv. 
Cornelius,  277. 

Criticism,  gain  through,  369-371. 
Cyrus,  98,  114,  117,  176. 

Daniel,  95,  134,  174-180,  216; 
errors  of,  177,  178;  miracle- 
stories  in,  178,  179;  approach 
to  doctrines  of  N.  T.,  179,  216, 
219. 

Darius,  134,  177. 

David,  21,  45,  54,  63,  105,  129, 
137, 155,  219,  264  ;  "sure  mer- 
cies of,"  47 ;  Queen  Victoria  on, 
46. 

Davidson,  ix,  362. 

Deborah,  43. 

Decalogue,  74;  the  one  Moses 
may  have  written,  105. 

Delitzsch,  21. 

Delphic  oracles,  123. 

Deluge,  34. 

Demonology,  329,  340,  353. 

Deuteronomy,  54,  121,  194,  195, 
210;  Scripture  begins  with, 
211;   discovery  of,  109,   no; 


Index 


37S 


date,  113;  quality,  11 1  ;  new 
regulations  of,  112;  legislation 
of  supplemented  by  Ezekiel,99. 

De  Wette,  296. 

Dionysius,  320. 

Driver,  ix. 

ECCLESIASTES,  220,  1 57  -  1 59  ; 
skepticism  of,  158;  canoniza- 
tion of,  219 ;  not  referred  to  in 
N.  T.,  221. 

Ecclesiasticus,  1 59-162, 206 ;  par- 
allelisms with  words  of  Jesus, 
161,  216. 

Education,  rise  of,  143, 144 ;  pub- 
lic, 163. 

Egypt,  influence  of,  32,  362 ;  no 
monumental  evidence  of  Israel- 
itish  sojourn  in,  40. 

Elijah,  51,  64,  66-68;  his  fore- 
telling, 67 ;  did  not  write,  65 ; 
prevalence  of  Baal-worship  in 
his  day,  67. 

Elisha,  51,  64,  67,  68. 

Enoch,  book  of,  181,  182. 

Ephesians,  296,  308. 

Epictetus,  23. 

Eridu,  37. 

Esdras,  184;  fabled  reproduction 
of  O.  T.,  223-225. 

Esther,  141,  142,  183,  219;  not 
referred  to  in  N.  T.,  221. 

Eusebius,  233. 

Exodus,  108,  122,  200;  germs  of, 

S3- 
Ezekiel,  54, 1 79 ;  priest,  deported 
to  Babylonia,  95 ;  prophet,  96 ; 
character  of  prophecy,  97  ;  his 
new  Constitution,  98 ;  laws  of, 


113;  his  indelicacies,  96;  his 
wheels,  100. 
Ezra,  118, 122, 179,  211 ;  triumph 
of,  120,  127;  his  wholesale  di- 
vorce requirement,  128;  work 
of,  1 33 ;  not  referred  to  in  N.T., 
221. 

Fatalism,  351. 

Fetishism,  44. 

Fiction  in  the  scriptures,  129, 130, 

141,  150,  334. 
Fourth  Gospel  (see  John). 

Gabriel,  243. 

Galatians,  296,  311-313. 

Gathas,  139  nofe. 

Gautama,  23. 

Genesis,  53,  102,  212. 

Gideon,  43. 

Gods,  all  admittedly  real  down  to 
middle  of  eighth  century  B.  c, 
50 ;  each  people  should  worship 
its  own,  70. 

Gospels,  sources  of,  229-247 ; 
synoptic,  248-270;  contrasted 
style  of  the  four,  337,  338 ;  di- 
vergences of  John,  331-333. 

Greece,  influence  on  Israel,  1 58- 
166,  363  ;  on  Christianity,  319, 

340,  349»  355- 
Guthe,  ix. 

Habakkuk,  88. 

Haggai,  114. 

Haman,  141. 

Hammurabi,  code  of,  21,  35,  106, 

no. 
Hamack,  ix. 


376 


Index 


Hazael,  67. 

Healing,  Jesus'  work    of,    240- 

243- 
Hebrews  (see  Israelites). 
Hebrews,  epistle  to  the,  296, 308, 

361 ;  gospel  according  to  the, 

361. 
Herod  Agrippa,  280. 
Hexateuch,  122,  212,  217. 
Hezekiah,  133. 
Hierarchy,  influence  of,  143. 
Hilkiah,  109,  112. 
Hillel,  186. 

History  of  Susanna,  184. 
Holtzmann,  ix. 
Homer,  192. 
Hosea,  30,  52,  210;  brilliancy  of, 

76. 
Huldah,  no. 

Idolatry,  general  in  the  early 
time,  41,44;  in  Jeremiah's  day, 
93  ;  bull-worship,  94 ;  idolatry 
ceases  in  Israel,  98. 

Immortality,  165,  341. 

Irenaeus,  361. 

Isaiah,  30,  52,  56,  78,  81,  84, 124 
1 92, 193 ;  book  of,  80-88 ;  work 
of  many  hands,  81 ;  occupying 
half  a  millennium,  87 ;  the 
Second  Isaiah,  86,  87,  179. 

Israelites,  primitive  condition  of, 
31  ;  sojourn  in  Egypt  unsup- 
ported by  inscriptions,  40 ; 
desert  wandering,  40  ;  condi- 
tion on  arrival  in  Canaan,  41 ; 
in  period  of  Judges,  43 ;  early 
religious  development  slow, 
44,  66. 


Jacob,  41. 

James,  285 ;  type  of,  265 ;  epistle 
of,  308,  361. 

James,  Dr.  M.  R.,  ix. 

Jamnia,  Council  of,  221. 

Jebus,  45. 

Jehovah  (see  Yahw^). 

Jehu,  67. 

Jeremiah,  54, 1 10, 124, 210 ;  nativ- 
ity and  call,  89;  wrote  little, 
90 ;  book  of,  grew  through  the 
centuries,  91 ;  genuine  portions, 
92 ;  additions  by  other  hands, 
92, 93 ;  mode  of  writing  out  his 
prophecies,  94 ;  his  patriotism, 
94;  on  Deuteronomy,  196. 

Jeremiah,  Biography  of,  90. 

Jeremiah,  Epistle  of,  135. 

Jeroboam,  64. 

Jesus,  earliest  records  of,  231- 
247 ;  nativity,  24 ;  discourses  of, 
258,  260-263,  266;  work  of 
healing,  240-243 ;  parables, 
245,  260,  263,  266-268;  did 
not  write,  231 ;  making  of  the 
record,  246;  growth  of  the 
legend  through  Mark,  Mat- 
thew, and  Luke,  255-259;  at 
house  of  Simon,  265 ;  on  places 
of  honor  at  table,  267  ;  geneal- 
ogies of,  257, 264 ;  miracles  of, 
252,  259-261 ;  limitations  of, 
255;  purpose  of,  342 ;  teaching 
of.  343»  344 ;  greatness  of,  345, 
367. 

Jesus  ben  Sira,  159-162. 

Jews,  Aryan  enmity  against,  15; 
modern  scorn  of,  23 ;  condition 
of  those  not  taken  to  Babylonia, 


Index 


377 


ii6;  exclusiveness  of,  191 ;  su- 
periority of,  25 ;  theory  that 
inspiration  was  restricted  to 
them,  14. 

Job,  147-154,  198-200,  206,  230; 
a  composite,  151  ;  divisions  of, 
152-154;  date,  148,  149;  can- 
onization, 219. 

Joel,  170,  171. 

Johannine  epistles,  324-326 ;  au- 
thorship, 325  ;  date,  326 ;  can- 
onization, 361. 

John,  gospel  of,  16, 326-337 ;  aim 
of.  333'  334;  date,  336;  an 
idealization  of  Jesus,  328-330 ; 
miracles  in,  330,  331  ;  diver- 
gences from  the  synoptics,  331- 
333 ;  as  a  whole  not  historical, 
334  ;  inconsistencies,  335  ;  a 
transformation  of  Christianity, 
353-356. 

John  Mark,  282,  285. 

John,  the  apostle,  type  of,  265. 

John  the  Baptist,  341. 

Jonah,  108,  112,  130-133,  142. 

Joseph,  24. 

Josephus,  188,  262. 

Joshua,  book  of,  42 ;  germs  of, 

S3- 

Josiah,  108,  150. 

Jubilees,  book  of,  185. 

Judaism,  intolerance  of,  127 ; 
how  distinguished  from  Chris- 
tianity, 187 ;  original  difficulty 
of  the  Church  in  freeing  itself 
from,  283-285. 

Judas,  irreconcilable  accounts  of 
the  death  of,  275. 

Jude,  185,  361. 


Judges,  43. 
Jiilicker,  ix. 
Justin  Martyr,  360. 

Kamphausen,  ix. 

Kautzsch,  ix. 

Kings,  books  of,  the  germs,  53. 

Koran,  19. 

Kosters,  ix. 

Kuenen,  ix,  55, 118  note,  129  note, 

ISO- 
Lamentations,  93,  219. 

Law,  old  theory  of  origin  of,  102 ; 
Mosaic  authorship  without  ev- 
idence, 103 ;  no  book  of  the 
kind  in  the  possession  of  Israel 
for  centuries  after  Moses,  107 ; 
first  finding  of  such  a  book,  109 ; 
Ezekiel's  contribution,  113  ; 
final  features  added  in  Baby- 
lonia, 114, 122;  Ezra  brings  out 
the  completed  work,  118;  start- 
ling effect,  119;  the  public  read- 
ing, 120, 121 ;  date,  121 ;  bulk, 
122 ;  late  completion  estab- 
lished by  testimony  of  unwilling 
witnesses,  123;  orderly  devel- 
opment of  the  book,  124,  125; 
its  canonization,  2 1 1  -2 1 4 ;  rank 
in  canon,  143, 180  note,  212  ;  in 
Christian  Church,  283,  365. 

Levites'  standing  in  Deuteron- 
omy and  in  Ezekiel,  99. 

Leviticus,  42,  54,  122. 

Logia,  239. 

Luke,  234,  245  ;  date,  250 ;  based 
on  Mark  and  Matthew,  263; 
additions  made  to  these,  264- 


378 


Index 


269;    development  of  the  in- 
fancy legends,  264. 
Lycurgus,  192. 

Maccabeus,  175. 

Maccabees,  90,  173,  213. 

Magi,  origin  of  the  story  of,  251. 

Malachi,  167,  168. 

Manasseh,  sacrifices  his  child  to 

Molech,  70. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  23. 
Mark,  233  ;  oldest  of  our  gospels, 

251-253 ;  "  original  Mark,"235, 

249,   254  ;   plain-spoken,  253  ; 

additions  to,  254. 
Marti,  ix. 

Martineau,  ix,  182  notey  368. 
Matthew,  233,  256, 302 ;  supposed 

development   of  an  apostolic 

writing,  248 ;  deviations  from 

Mark,  257-263;  date  of,  250, 

251. 
Mencius,  23. 
Merodach,  114. 
Meyer,  ix. 
Micah,  30,  52,  61 ;   little  of  his 

work  left,  77. 
Milcom,  73. 

Miracles,  "  day  of,"  240. 
Miraculous   conception,   bearing 

on  the  question  how  far  Jesus 

was  a  Jew,  24. 
Mitchell,  H.  G.,  ix. 
Molech,  42,  72,  73  ;   Ahaz  and 

Manasseh  offer  up  children  to 

him,  70. 
Monolatry  attained  to,  50. 
Monuments,   testimony   of,   30; 

confirmations  from,  59. 


Moore,  Dr.  G.  F.,  ix,  73  note. 

Moses,  21, 61, 66 ;  not  an  author, 
55 ;  connection  with  the  Dec- 
alogue, 73 ;  as  lawgiver,  103- 
105 ;  historical  or  mythical,  lit- 
erate or  illiterate  ?  32. 

Nahum,  88. 

Nain,  widow  of,  243. 

Nathan,  63. 

Nebuchadrezzar,  175,  178,  179. 

Necho,  175. 

Nehemiah,  117,  120,  179;  work 

of,  133- 

Nero,  322. 

New  Moon,  feast  of,  140. 

Noldeke,  ix,  142  note. 

Northern  kingdom  (Israel),  origin 
of,  49 ;  religion  in,  50 ;  extinc- 
tion of,  94. 

Numbers,  108, 122 ;  germs  of,  53. 

Obadiah,  169. 

Ochus,  85  note. 

Onias,  176. 

Origen,  362. 

Oxyrhynchus  fragment,  238. 

Papias,  233,  234,  256. 

Parables :  The  Tares,  260 ;  Fool- 
ish and  Wise  Virgins,  the  Tal- 
ents, 263  ;  Good  Samaritan, 
266 ;  Great  Supper, Lost  Sheep, 
Prodigal  Son,  267 ;  Unjust 
Steward,  Dives  and  Lazarus, 
268. 

Passing  through  the  fire,  70. 

Paul,  280,  291 ;  reputed  author  of 
fourteen  epistles,  294 ;  not  re- 


Index 


379 


ferred  to  in  Acts  as  a  writer, 
292,  293 ;  style  of  his  real  ut- 
terances, 295 ;  the  actual  man, 
305,  306 ;  his  arrangement  with 
the  Jewish-Christian  party,285 ; 
farewell  at  Ephesus,  289,  290. 

Pauline  epistles,  character  of,  294, 
366;  not  relevant  to  the  life- 
time of  Paul,  295 ;  work  of 
later  writer,  299-304 ;  value  of, 
307-309;  effect  of,  313;  doc- 
trine of,  314,  315;  general  ac- 
ceptance of,  315,  316. 

Paulinism,  347-353- 

Pentateuch,  102-108,  122,  230; 
elements  of  begin  to  take  form, 

38. 

Pessimism,  6;^,  157. 

Peter,  233 ;  his  inquiry  about  for- 
giveness, 261  ;  leader  of  the 
apostles,  273 ;  visit  to  Cor- 
nelius, 277  ;  first  to  receive  gen- 
tiles into  the  Church,  278,  284. 

Petrine  epistles,  308,  359,  361. 

Pfleiderer,  iv,  ix. 

Philemon,  308. 

Philippians,  300,  311. 

Prayer  of  Manasses,  184. 

Predestination,  351. 

Progress,  54,  187,  190-200;  early 
steps  slow,  57;  of  ideas,  162; 
in  breadth  of  view,  206 ;  undu- 
latory,  364,  365. 

Prophecy,  beginning  of,  49 ;  early 
character  of,  62,  78 ;  later  ele- 
vation of,  79,  86 ;  first  written 
prophecy  not  monotheistic,  77  ; 
value  of  not  dependent  on 
name  of  author,  78. 


Prophets,  215,  216;  first  called 
seers,  62 ;  in  the  eighth  cent- 
ury, 52  ;  inferior  sort  the  more 
numerous  and  popular,  6;^ ; 
smooth-speaking,  orthodox,65 ; 
higher  order  pessimistic,  63 ; 
aim  of  first  great,  66 ;  achieve- 
ments of,  194. 

Proverbs,  155-157 ;  canonization, 
219. 

Psalms,  138,  139,  200-205;  vari- 
ety of,  201 ;  greatness  of  a  few, 
202-205  ;  wisdom,  154 ;  canon- 
ization of,  219. 

Pseudonymous  writings,  1 13, 123, 

304- 
Ptolemy,  134. 
Purim,  141,  142. 

Qualities  of  "  holy "  men  in 

flagrant  contrast,   54. 
Queen  Victoria  on  David,  46. 

Racial  distinction  mental  as  well 
as  physical,  16. 

Renan,  281. 

Resurrection,  doctrine  of,  346, 
351,  352 ;  resurrection-legends' 
late  growth,  255  ;  origin  of 
these,   346. 

Revelation  to  Jews  alone  ?  14 ; 
difficulty  of  such  a  theory,  19. 

Revelation  of  John  (see  Apoca- 
lypse). 

Reville,  ix. 

Ritual,  197 ;  features  adopted 
from  other  faiths,  1 40 ;  harden- 
ing of,  124,  193,  364. 

Romans,  296-301,  310. 


38o 


Index 


Rome,  influence  on  Christianity, 

319.  364- 
Ruth,  128,  129,  142,  219. 

Sabatier,  ix. 

Sabbath,  140,  167. 

Sacrifices,  human,  61,  70,  72. 

Samson,  38. 

Samuel,  45,  54,  62  ;  germs  of  the 
books,  53. 

Sapphira,  275. 

Satan,  149. 

Saturn,  140. 

Saul,  45,  54. 

Sayce,  38  note. 

Schleiermacher,  296. 

Schmidt,  ix. 

Schmiedel,  ix,  16  note,  251,  336, 
356. 

Scriptures,  Jewish,  acceptance  of 
in  Europe,  1 5 ;  not  now  gener- 
ally taken  in  earnest,  1 7 ;  first 
book  of,  210,  21 1 ;  must  be  an- 
cient, 219,  223;  of  non- Jewish 
peoples,  19  ;  Christian,  229- 
339 ;  meaning  of  word  in  N.T., 

359- 
Semler,  296. 
Seneca,  23. 
Sergius  Paulus,  281. 
Shaler,  15  note. 
Shaphan,  109. 
Shepherd  of  Hermas,  361. 
Sibylline  Oracles,  183. 
Silas,  286. 

Simmons,  H.  M.,  iv. 
Sin,  doctrine  of,  350. 
Sinai,  40. 
Socrates,  ^3. 


Solomon,  54,  64,  69,  155,  219; 

splendor  of,  47  ;  polygamy  of, 

48 ;    provides  for  worship   of 

foreign  gods,  69. 
Song  of  Solomon  (see  Canticles). 
Song   of    the   Three    Children, 

184. 
Sources,  gospel,  how  formed,237 ; 

bulk  of,  238. 
Stade,  ix. 
Stephen,  279. 
Synagogue,  144. 
Synoptic  gospels,  248-270 ;  order 

of  in  time,  269 ;  characteristics 

of,  270. 

Talmud,  186. 

Tertullian,  361. 

Testament  of  the  XII  Patriarchs, 

183. 
Testaments,  Old  and  New,  229; 

agreements  and  contrasts,  230, 

231.340,365- 
Thessalonians,  296, 300, 301,  308. 
Timothy,  283,  286,  296. 
Titus,  296. 
Tobit,  172. 
Tolerance,  127;  decline  of  with 

advance  to  monotheism,  128. 
Torrey,  Dr.  C.  C,  be. 
Toy,  Dr.  C.  H.,  be. 
Tradition,    Double    and   Triple, 

244. 

Uzziah,  137. 

Van  Manen,  iii,  ix,  303  note. 
Vedas,  19. 
Virgin  birth,  24. 


Index 


381 


Visions,  100,  179,  322. 
Volz,  ix. 

Wellhausen,  ix. 

White,  Dr.  A.  D.,  iv. 

Winckler,  ix,  32. 

Wisdom  literature,  146-166. 

Wisdom  of  Solomon,  163-166; 

use  of  by  N.  T.  writers,  164; 

Greek  tone,  164,  165. 

Xerxes,  178. 
Xystus,  251. 

YAHwfe,  reasons  for  preferring 
this  form  to  "Jehovah,"  41; 
original  character  of,  42 ;   pa- 


tron god  of  Israel,  69 ;  as  light 
and  fire,  72  ;  growth  in  idea  of, 
189,  190. 

Zacharias,  243. 

Zadok,  sons  of,  99. 

Zarathustra,  22,  98,  -^^^t^  ;  influ- 
ence of  on  Jewish  psalm-writ- 
ing, 139- 

Zechariah,  11 4-1 16. 

Zechariah  son  of  Barachiah, 
262. 

Zephaniah,  88,  188. 

Zerubbabel,  115. 

Zeus,  69 ;  altar  of  set  up  in 
Jerusalem  temple,  173,  176. 

Zoroaster  (see  Zarathustra). 


